While the economy of Indonesia can be labelled “healthy” in 2018 as the country’s slow process of accelerating economic growth continued amid very challenging external conditions (albeit it needs waiting for the Q4 GDP growth data  to confirm this statement), not everything went rosy for Southeast Asia’s largest economy in 2018. In fact, for Indonesia, 2018 is characterized by a multitude of devastating and fatal disasters.

Read more ›

Concern about Indonesia's Q4-2018 current account deficit as well as the value of the rupiah exchange rate should increase now the country posted a big USD $2.05 billion monthly trade deficit in November 2018. It is the highest monthly trade deficit for Southeast Asia's largest economy since July 2013.

Read more ›

On Sunday 16 December 2018 Indonesia and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which consists of non-EU member countries Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland, signed the Indonesia-EFTA Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The signing ceremony, which was held in Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta, effectively ends nearly eight years of negotiations between both sides.

Read more ›

After years of struggle the outlook for Indonesia's ceramic industry looks a bit more positive now. In recent years Indonesia's domestic ceramic industry has been plagued by subdued growth in Indonesia's property sector, while there also emerged increasing competition from Chinese counterparts (who are facing a structural ceramic oversupply at home and therefore, aggressively, try to penetrate the Southeast Asian market by offering their ceramic products at attractive rates).

Read more ›