Indonesia's tax authorities are planning to revise the non-taxable income regulation again in an attempt to improve the nation's low tax ratio. Last year the government of Indonesia raised non-taxable income by 50 percent from IDR 36 million (approx. USD $2,700) to IDR 54 million (approx. USD $4,060), per year, in a bid to strengthen people's purchasing power and encourage household consumption. However, considering local minimum wages vary across the country's 34 provinces, the nation-wide non-taxable income level of IDR 54 million causes some problems.

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Overall, the banking industry of Indonesia is setting a good performance in 2017 supported by rising credit growth and a lower non-performing loan (NPL) ratio. State-controlled (yet listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange) financial institution Bank Mandiri, the largest Indonesian bank by assets, reported a 33.7 percent year-on-year (y/y) increase in net income to IDR 9.5 trillion (approx. USD $714 million) in the first half of 2017.

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Astra International is one of the largest companies in terms of market capitalization on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The company is often labeled the barometer of the Indonesian economy because this diversified conglomerate is active in most of the major sectors of the economy. Therefore, it is interesting to take a look at the performance of this company when formulating forecasts about Indonesia's economic growth.

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Bleak retail sales in Indonesia are expected to continue in the second half of 2017 amid weak consumer purchasing power. Yongky Susilo, Executive Director at Retailer Services Nielsen Indonesia, expects the nation's retail sales growth to be be 6 percent year-on-year (y/y), tops. Normally, the growth pace of retail sales in Southeast Asia's largest economy averages 10 - 11 percent (y/y).

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