The government of Indonesia expects to list two state-owned enterprises on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in 2014. Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Dahlan Iskan announced that the two companies involve Perkebunan Nusantara III and Perkebunan Nusantara IV. The main reason behind conducting the initial public offerings (IPOs) is to reap funds for further expansion. The IPO plan needs to be approved first by the Privatization Committee, under the wings of the Ministry of Economy, and then by the House of Representatives (DPR).

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Indonesia Investments has updated the company profile of United Tractors, Indonesia's largest heavy equipment distributor. Besides heavy equipment, the company is also engaged in mining contracting and coal mining. As reduced global demand for Indonesian commodities has reduced mining activity in Indonesia, United Tractors reported a fall in net profit of 25 percent (yoy) to IDR 2.3 trillion (USD $203.5 million) in the first six months of 2013. As such, the company is eagerly awaiting a rebound in global demand for Indonesia's commodities.

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The government of Indonesia will be firm to convince the international community at the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to place crude palm oil (CPO) - including its derivative products - and rubber on the APEC Environmental Goods List (EG List). In the APEC ministerial meeting in Surabaya (East Java), last April, Indonesia failed to include these products on the list. However, the government will continue its lobby during the current APEC meeting by stressing that these products are environmentally friendly.

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Indonesia’s economy continues to adjust, as weaker commodity prices, tighter international financing, and slowing domestic demand moderate the growth rate to 5.6 percent for 2013. This downward revision is discussed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Indonesia Economic Quarterly (IEQ). Further moderation of growth (at 5.3 percent) may be expected in 2014, with growth in high income economies firming but international market conditions likely remaining volatile.

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Indonesia Investments has added the company profile of Atlas Resources to the Indonesian Companies' database. Atlas Resources is an Indonesian coal mining company that targets for business growth through acquisitions, explorations and development (with a focus on smaller scale regional coal concessions). Similar to other Indonesian coal miners, the company has to cope with weak global coal demand and the subsequent weak coal price. The company's exploratory and production activities are mainly conducted on Sumatra and Kalimantan.

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Singapore-based DBS Group, a leading financial services group in Asia, expects Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) growth to reach 5.8 percent in 2013, while it forecasts growth of 6.0 percent in 2014. This year, Indonesia has to cope with ups and downs due to several domestic and foreign factors. According to the institution, two issues stand out as being significantly influential this year. These are the government's decision to increase prices of subsidized fuels in late June and the country's sharply depreciating rupiah.

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Indonesia Investments updated the profile of coffee in our commodities section. Indonesia is one of the world's top coffee producing and exporting countries and thus this beverage is an important foreign exchange earner. Starting from the 1960s, Indonesia has shown a small but stable increase in domestic production of coffee. Apart from the production of regular coffee, Indonesia is famous for certain types of specialty coffee, including  luwak coffee (kopi luwak), Toraja coffee, Aceh coffee and Mandailing coffee.

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Although Indonesia continues with its plan to ban the export of raw minerals from 2014 onward as stipulated by the 2009 Mining Law, the government is studying the possibility to exempt companies temporarily from this rule if they show serious intentions to build processing factories or smelters in Indonesia in order to produce value-added products. Indonesia is still mainly a raw commodity-exporting country and thus misses out on value-added revenue while being more susceptible to volatility in commodity prices on the global market.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the economy of Indonesia to expand by 5.25 percent in 2013, which is considerably lower than the IMF's earlier forecast. In its World Economic Outlook, released in April 2013, the institution set economic growth of Indonesia at 6.3 percent. However, after emerging markets were hit by large capital outflows when the Federal Reserve began to speculate about an end to its quantitative easing program (QE3), Indonesia's GDP growth assumptions were quickly revised downwards.

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Finance minister Chatib Basri said that the Indonesian government should revise its outlook for GDP growth in 2014 from 6.4% (mentioned in the 2014 State Budget) to about 6.0%. A more realistic outlook, which is in line with the current global and domestic financial context, is needed. Global uncertainty due to the possible ending of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program has resulted in capital outflows from emerging markets, including Indonesia. Various countries, developed and emerging ones, have lowered outlooks for 2014 GDP growth.

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The government of Indonesia is yet to find a middle way between encouraging the development of processing facilities for the country's mining output and the relaxation of mineral ore exports. Based on Law No. 4/2009 on Mineral and Coal Mining (New Mining Law), exports of mineral ore should have been fully banned in 2014. However, due to the lack of domestic smelting capacity a last-minute regulation was signed in early January 2014 by former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that softened this ban.

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On Monday (04/01) Indonesia's Statistics Agency (BPS) announced that the number of Indonesian people living below the poverty line stood at 28.51 million people in September 2015, or 11.13 percent of the total Indonesian population. Compared to March 2015 the number of Indonesians living below the poverty line fell by 80,000 people. However, compared to September 2014 the number rose by 78,000 people. BPS releases poverty figures twice per year covering the months March and September.

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After having experienced two consecutive months of deflation in September and October, Indonesia is expected to see inflation again in November, primarily on higher food prices (chicken meat and rice). Agus Martowardojo, Governor of Bank Indonesia, expects an inflation rate of 0.2 percent (month-on-month) in November. This would mean that inflation in full-year 2015 is likely to reach 3 percent (y/y), in line with earlier estimates and within - or perhaps slightly below - Bank Indonesia's target range of 3 - 5 percent (y/y) of inflation in 2015.

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In the latest update of its flagship publication Asian Development Outlook 2015, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said softer economic growth prospects of China and India in combination with slow recovery in the major industrial markets were reason why the ADB has cut its economic growth forecast for developing Asia in 2015 and 2016. The ADB now estimates GDP growth in developing Asia at 5.8 percent (y/y) in 2015 and 6.0 percent (y/y) in 2016, down from previous GDP growth forecasts of 6.3 percent (y/y) for both years.

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In the 2000s many Indonesian companies diversified their business to include coal mining (or shifting their core business to coal mining altogether) due to lucrative opportunities amid the 2000s commodities boom. However, since 2009 mining companies have had to face tough times. Especially since 2011 commodity prices have shown a declining trend and there remains little hope of a rebound on the short term as the sluggish global economic growth trend persists, particularly led by the economic slowdown in China.

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Pada awal 2014 Indonesia memperkenalkan larangan ekspor yang telah lama direncanakan untuk biji mineral mentah dalam usaha untuk memperkuat perekonomian domestik dengan mengurangi ketergantungan pada ekspor komoditi mentah dan mengharuskan para penambang untuk mengolah biji-biji mentah di dalam negeri sebelum ekspor diizinkan. Sebagai suplier global penting untuk sejumlah biji mentah, peraturan Indonesia yang baru ini (ditetapkan oleh UU No. 4/2009 mengenai Pertambangan Batubara dan Mineral) memiliki dampak yang signifikan pada pasar dan harga global, salah satunya nikel.

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Indonesia posted a higher-than-expected USD $454.4 million trade surplus in April 2015. Previously, analysts predicted to see an April trade surplus of around USD $120 million. However, the USD $454.4 million trade surplus was smaller than the (revised) USD $1 billion trade surplus recorded in March. Moreover, the April surplus (the country’s fifth consecutive trade surplus) is primarily caused by a large drop in imports, signalling that Indonesia’s economic performance remains sluggish at the start of Q2-2015.

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Indonesia’s central bank (Bank Indonesia) decided to maintain its benchmark interest rate (BI rate) at 7.50 percent, the deposit facility rate at 5.50 percent and lending facility rate at 8.00 percent. This interest rate environment is considered to be in line with the central bank’s ongoing efforts to push the country’s inflation figure within its target of 4±1 percent for 2015 and 2016, as well as to control the country’s current account deficit towards a healthier level at 2.5-3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the medium term.

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When we look at activity in the precious metals markets over the last decade, one of the biggest developing trends has been the increase in both demand and production output from emerging Asian economies. For most of this period, Indonesia has been participating with these trends - especially on the production output front. As recently as 2009, Indonesia was responsible for 130 tons worth of gold production, as mining activity becomes more efficient and increased investment resources flow into the country.

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There was few good news from a global economic perspective as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sharply cut its outlook for global economic growth in the next two years. According to the IMF, global economic growth will only reach 3.5 percent (y/y) in 2015 and 3.7 percent in 2016 due to poorer prospects in China, Russia, the Eurozone, and Japan. Economic growth of China (the world’s second-largest economy) fell to a 24-year low at 7.4 percent year-on-year (y/y) in 2014, below the government target of 7.5 percent (y/y).

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