Freeport Indonesia, subsidiary of American-based Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold, is allowed to continue its open-pit mining activities. The company was forced to halt its mining activities temporarily after an underground tunnel collapsed in mid-May, resulting in the deaths of 28 people. After a thorough evaluation by an independent team of investigators, Freeport is allowed to resume operations. The permission was granted by Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

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Bloomberg reported that the investment agency of Indonesia's finance ministry will start a fund of IDR 3 trillion (USD $302 million) to finance the exploration of geothermal energy resources in Indonesia this year. Saritaon Siregar, the agency’s chairman, said this in an interview at a conference in Jakarta this week. The investment fund is in line with Indonesia's intention of lowering its dependency on expensive and environmentally unfriendly fossil fuels as a source for energy and electricity.

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Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) is a government controlled gas firm that forms Indonesia's largest natural gas transportation and distribution company. It operates a distribution network that extends for 3,865 kilometers and a transmission pipeline network that measures 2,047 kilometers. PGN plays an important role in Indonesia's electricity production as it sells about 40 percent of its total sales volume to the country's power generation industry. It also forms one of the largest Indonesian companies in terms of market capitalization.

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In order to increase government revenues, the Indonesian government announced that, starting from 2014, coal miners that have a Mining Business License (Izin Usaha Pertambangan/IUP) will have to pay a higher royalty fee to the central government. The decision was made during a meeting between the government and Commission XI of the House of Representatives (DPR) this week. The new royalty policy, which was originally planned to be introduced this year, is expected to result in an increase of IDR 4 trillion (USD $408.2 million) in state revenues.

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Indonesia's minister of Economy, Ir. M. Hatta Rajasa, stated that the government of Indonesia intends to realize economic growth of at least 6.2 percent in the second quarter of 2013 in order to remain on track for 6.3 percent growth for full year 2013. Although he reminded that it will take hard effort to realize this target, his message contained more optimism than Finance minister Chatib Basri's statement earlier this week who sees 6.0 percent of economic growth as the limit in Q2-2013.

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In recent months, positive fundamentals have coloured stock indices green. Despite volatility, these positive fundamentals remain today. Therefore, analysts of JP Morgan emphasize that people should not turn their backs to stock markets now. Risks are obviously always present but the analysts stress that people should not be too concerned about ongoing volatility. In fact, volatility should be used to one's advantage by purchasing when the index is low. Below are five arguments that JP Morgan mentions as reason to keep buying stocks.

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In a new survey, conducted by the Fraser Institute, that assesses the state of the investment climate in the mining sector in 2012-2013 in countries around the globe, Indonesia is ranked at number 96. Both tax and regulatory uncertainties in Indonesia's mining sector are cited as reasons for the low ranking of the country. As investments in the mining sector are capital intensive and long-term in nature, investors thus need a clear legal framework that is not susceptible to sudden changes due to political issues.

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In the draft for the State Budget of 2014 (RAPBN 2014), the government of Indonesia projects economic growth of between 6.4 and 6.9 percent. Continued global recovery is expected to result in higher GDP growth compared to 2012 (6.23 percent) as it will result in better demand for Indonesian products, such as commodities. The main pillar of Indonesia's GDP growth - domestic consumption - is expected to grow due to the population's higher purchasing power and the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.

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Oil production in Indonesia is targeted to be lifted to 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by October or November 2014 according to SKK Migas, the government unit that manages upstream activities in Indonesia's oil and gas sector. Crude oil production in the first quarter of 2013 was 830,900 bpd, eight percent lower than the target in the country's state budget. Indonesia's oil output has fallen steadily in the last decade due to a lack of exploration and other investments in the sector that was once the engine of Indonesia's economic growth.

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Today, Statistics Indonesia released Indonesia's economic growth figure for the first quarter of 2013. Compared to Q1-2012, Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.02 percent. This growth was supported by almost every sector except for Mining and Extracting, which fell 0.43 percent (YoY), indicating that natural resources are still not back on track. The largest contributor to Indonesia's Q1-2013 growth is Transportation and Communication, which grew 9.98 percent.

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In his presentation at the Indonesia Investment Summit 2015, organized in Jakarta on 15-16 January, Standard Chartered Bank Senior Economist Fauzi Ichsan said that despite the challenges amid global uncertain times, there remains plenty room and opportunity for Indonesia to grow robustly on the long-term. In fact, by 2030 Ichsan believes that Indonesia will be among the world's top ten countries in terms of largest economies. For investors it is important to understand the challenges and key pillars of economic growth.

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The Indonesian rupiah exchange rate depreciated on Wednesday (14/01) as global oil and other commodity prices continued to fall thus casting a negative spell on Indonesia’s currency. The rupiah depreciated 0.11 percent to IDR 12,614 per US dollar according to the Bloomberg Dollar Index. Market participants are concerned about the negative influence of low commodity prices on Indonesia’s export performance. Southeast Asia’s largest economy has had to cope with a wide trade and current account deficit in recent years.

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Indonesia’s inflation pace accelerated in December 2014, exceeding estimations of analysts and Indonesia’s central bank. December inflation, 2.46 percent (m/m) or 8.36 percent (y/y), accelerated due to the impact of higher subsidized fuel prices (introduced in November) and volatile food prices (fluctuating rice and chili prices at the year-end). Other factors that contributed to high inflation in 2014 were higher electricity tariffs for households and industries, the higher price of 12 kg LPG, and an airfare adjustment.

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Malaysia, the world’s second-largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer and exporter, will continue its duty-free export tariff for CPO in January 2015 according to information from the Malaysian customs department. Starting from September 2014 Malaysian authorities have implemented a duty-free CPO export policy in an effort to boost global demand and support international CPO prices (which have fallen nearly 20 percent this year). Indonesia, which has seen duty-free CPO shipments since October 2014, is expected to follow suit.

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Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s three largest rubber producing countries (accounting for about 70 percent of total global natural rubber output), have agreed to avoid excessive natural rubber supply on the international market by limiting their rubber exports. The countries also agree to curb new rubber plantation development as well as to spur domestic rubber consumption in each country. This statement was read out by Douglas Uggah Embas, Plantation Industries Minister of Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur today (20/11).

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Reserves of crude palm oil (CPO) in Indonesia may have declined for a second straight month in October on the back of drought and an increase in exports from Southeast Asia’s largest economy. The delayed impact of drought (which even managed to dry up several rivers in West Kalimantan in October) limited production of CPO in recent weeks. Meanwhile, exports have increased after Indonesia and Malaysia - the world’s two top palm oil producers - scrapped export taxes to boost demand for this commodity.

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Economic expansion of China slowed to a growth pace of 7.3 percent year-on-year (y/y) in the third quarter of 2014, the slowest pace in five years. Although China’s Q3-2014 GDP growth result was better than most analysts’ projections of 7.2 percent, Chinese policy makers will face difficulties to achieve its 7.5 percent annual growth target for full-year 2014. Being one of the most important trading partners of Indonesia, slowing economic growth of China has a major impact on the export performance of Indonesia.

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Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry estimates that Indonesia’s rice harvest will not be severely affected by the El Niño weather phenomenon this year. The Ministry expects to see a rice production of at least 70 million tons of unmilled rice in 2014, just 1.9 percent down from the 71.3 million tons of rice that was produced last year. Meanwhile, Indonesia may see a record coffee harvest in 2015 as recent rainfall in the important coffee-producing regions have supported the development of cherries.

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Indonesian Finance Minister Chatib Basri said that the lower pace of economic growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy, is a major concern for Indonesia as it leads to declining demand for commodities (and thus places downward pressure on commodity prices). As Indonesia is a major commodity exporter - such as coal, crude palm oil, nickel ore and tin - the country feels the impact of weak global demand for commodities. About 60 percent of Indonesia’s exports are commodities, mostly raw ones.

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Prestigious Hong Kong-based HSBC Bank claims that a new commodity boom may appear if India will boost investments in infrastructure and housing. Chances of increased spending in India have grown considerably after reform-minded Narendra Modi posted a victory in the May 2014 election. Economists at the HSBC Bank say that this may give rise to a new prolonged commodities boom as had occurred in the 2000s which - to a large extent - was triggered by accelerated economic growth in emerging economies, particularly China.

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