Indonesia Investments: Introduction to the December 2025 Report
Below, we reprint the introduction to the December 2025 report. This report zooms in on a variety of topics that were relevant to Indonesia in the month of December 2025. When selecting subjects to examine, we always focus on those that (potentially) influence the investment environment of Indonesia.
First of all, the Indonesia Investments team wishes all readers of our monthly report a happy New Year. May we all experience a healthy, happy, and successful 2026!
Unfortunately, at this very moment, thousands of people across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra remain in tough circumstances. In late November and at the start of December 2025 devastating floods and landslides (triggered by this rare cyclone) caused enormous damage and claimed over a thousand lives. These events now rank as the fifth-deadliest natural disaster in Indonesia since the turn of the millennium.
We did not address these disastrous events in our November 2025 report as the scale of the crisis only became clear when we had almost finished the report. In this current report, however, we open with an analysis of Cyclone Senyar. While natural disasters are largely beyond human control, this tragedy on Sumatra offers a stark lesson: irresponsible human activities significantly exacerbate the consequences of such events.
Deforestation and soil erosion ensure that when disaster strikes, the frequency and severity of landslides are far greater than they otherwise would be. Furthermore, property construction lacking sound foundations (often using substandard concrete mixes with insufficient cement) ensures that structures collapse rapidly under the pressure of floods, heavy rains or earthquakes. Another complexity highlighted by these events is the low insurance penetration rate in Indonesia. This means the vast majority of the financial burden for reconstruction falls on the state and the private savings of individuals.
In this edition, we also present an in-depth analysis of Indonesia’s upstream coffee sector. By coincidence, this topic is deeply relevant to North Sumatra and Aceh, two provinces that serve as vital hubs for national coffee bean production. Initial reports indicate that Arabica plantations (typically situated at higher elevations) have been significantly impacted by landslides and floods, whereas Robusta plantations have remained largely unaffected.
Other topics featured in this December edition include foreign investors’ appetite for short-term central bank instruments (SRBI) and long-term government bonds (SBN), inflation, and an analysis of Indonesia’s latest macroeconomic indicators.
Richard van der Schaar, MA Indonesian Studies
Managing Director
Want to order the December 2025 report? The report (an electronic report, PDF, in English) can be ordered by contacting us through email and/or WhatsApp:
- info@indonesia-investments.com
- +62(0)882.9875.1125
Price of this report:
Rp 150,000 (or equivalent in other currencies)
Take a glance inside the report here!
