Italian consumers can now enjoy fresh pineapples from Indonesia after the first container - containing 18 tons of Indonesian pineapples - arrived in the port city of Venice on 9 June 2017. The export of fresh pineapples is done by Great Giant Food in cooperation with Italian importer SAMA SpA (which plans to import up to 20 containers from Indonesia before the end of 2017). Previously, Italian consumers could only enjoy pineapple that was packed in a can.

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In line with expectations the US Federal Reserve announced to raise its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.00 - 1.25 percent after conclusion of the June policy meeting on Wednesday (14/06), its second hike in 2017. It also announced it will soon start its balance sheet unwinding plan, meaning cutting its massive (USD $4.5 trillion) holdings of bonds and securities. The Fed also informed US inflation will remain below its target with core inflation slowing for a fourth month in May 2017. But despite soft inflation, it goes ahead with monetary tightening.

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Ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision, Indonesia's benchmark Jakarta Composite Index surged a whopping 1.49 percent to 5,792.90 points in Wednesday (14/06). The US Fed, which is to conclude its two-day policy meeting later today, is widely assumed to raise its key short-term interest rate by 0.25 percent, which would be the third rate hike in six months. For Indonesian stocks it was a new record high. Not only Indonesia but most stock indexes climbed in Asia ahead of the Federal Reserve decision.

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Fully state-owned Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), which holds a monopoly on electricity distribution in Indonesia, will soon acquire coal mining concessions in order to safeguard its future coal supplies and have a stronger position when negotiating coal prices with traders. PLN's power plants are estimated to require slightly more than 88 million tons in 2017, hence being the country's largest coal consumer.

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