The first phase of Indonesia's tax amnesty program was a success in terms of tax declarations and state revenue (penalties). Fund repatriations, on the other hand, were disappointing as - apparently - Indonesian tax payers find it not attractive enough to transfer these funds into Indonesian investment instruments or lack confidence in Indonesia's political and financial stability (perhaps still haunted by traumas from the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s). However, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati remains optimistic that repatriations will rise soon now the winner of the US presidential election is known.

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Global demand for vegetable and animal oils is expected to reach 200 million tons in 2016, up 3 percent from demand one year earlier. About 70 million tons of total global vegetable and animal oils demand this year consists of crude palm oil (CPO). Indonesia, the world's largest CPO producer and exporter, is expected to produce about 30.5 million tons of CPO in 2016. Meanwhile, in the first nine months of 2016 Indonesia's CPO export realization stood at 18 million tons.

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The Indonesian government now allows private investors to develop oil refineries in Indonesia, effectively ending state-owned energy Pertamina's (virtual) monopoly. Before this new regulation, private companies had to cooperate with Pertamina to build oil refineries in Southeast Asia's largest economy. The new policy is an effort to boost domestic oil refinery capacity in Indonesia (hence limiting the need for refined fuel imports) and improve the investment climate by opening this industry to the private sector. This sector can also apply for tax incentives.

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On 20 November 2016, 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 as rising ethnic and religious tensions in Indonesia, interest rates, GDP growth, the trade balance, financial markets, a mystery on the bottom of the Java Sea, and more.

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