On 19 February 2017, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website over the last seven days. Most of the topics involve political, social and economy-related topics such the Jakarta gubernatorial election, interest rates, the e-commerce sector, the trade balance, manufacturing, infrastructure, foreign investment, and more.

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In 2016 Indonesia was the third-largest Asian country in terms of modern retail sales growth after India and China. Last year Indonesia's modern retail sales expanded 10 percent to IDR 200 trillion (approx. USD $15 billion). Roy Nicholas Mandey, Chairman of the Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo), said Indonesia remains an attractive country for retailers due to the enormous size of the population. Moreover, due to economic growth this population constitutes a strengthening consumer force. Lastly, Indonesians are known as people who are eager to try and buy new products.

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The Indonesian Palm Oil Board (DMSI) says higher productivity is the key to boost Indonesia's crude palm oil (CPO) production. Amid international pressure, particularly after the devastating forest fires on Sumatra and Kalimantan in the second half of 2015, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced to issue a five-year moratorium on new palm oil concessions to limit the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. Although Indonesian authorities want to see rising CPO output (in order to safeguard foreign exchange earnings and create employment opportunities), further growth should come on the back of rising productivity, not by adding new plantations.

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Indonesia's e-commerce industry has grown rapidly (in two-digits, annually) over the past five years. This growth is expected to continue in 2017 as well as in the years ahead. Aulia Marinto, Chairman of the E-Commerce Association (idEA), expects the value of e-commerce transactions in Indonesia to surge between 30-50 percent year-on-year (y/y) to USD $45 billion in 2017 from an estimated USD $30 billion in 2016. Indonesia is still in the early stages of the digital economy revolution and therefore there is ample room for robust growth, particularly due to rising Internet and smartphone penetration.

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