• Garuda Indonesia Evaluates Sponsorship Deal with Liverpool Football Club

    Indonesian airline Garuda Indonesia will evaluate its sponsorship deal with English Premier League football club Liverpool within the next two months. Arief Wibowo, General Director of Garuda Indonesia, said brand awareness abroad is important and the sponsorship deal is also a source of pride for the airline. However, considering the deal costs about USD $9 million per year, the airline has to evaluate whether it is worth continuing the sponsorship deal that is set to expire in mid-2016.

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  • Bank Indonesia Survey: Indonesian Consumers More Optimistic

    Good news at the start of the new year. Indonesia's consumer confidence has risen in December 2015 according to the latest Bank Indonesia survey. Consumer optimism means that consumers are more likely to purchase goods hence giving ammunition for accelerated economic growth (domestic consumption accounts for about 55 percent of the nation's total economic growth). The portion of income that respondents use for consumption rose 0.6 percent month-on-month (m/m) to 69 percent of their income.

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  • Indonesia Stock Market Update: Asia's Stocks in the Red, Global Selloff

    Stocks and currencies across Asia are under heavy pressure on Thursday (07/01) after China's central bank set its yuan rate 0.51 percent lower (at 6,5646 per US dollar). As a result, Chinese shares plunged over 7 percent (triggering the new circuit-breaking mechanism - for the second day this week - 30 minutes after trading opened today). Asian shares are also weak due to big losses in Europe and on Wall Street overnight. Markets reacted to the oil price that slid to a more-than-seven-year low at USD $33.97 per barrel.

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  • Still a Long Road toward Beef Self-Sufficiency for Indonesia

    The Indonesian Cattle and Buffalo Farmers Union (PPSKI) is pessimistic that Indonesia can achieve self-sufficiency in beef in either 2016 or 2017 despite the Indonesian government’s renewed push for self-sufficiency in various commodities, including beef. Self-sufficiency in beef is defined by the PPSKI as needing to import less than 10 percent of the nation’s total beef demand. However, with Indonesia’s beef demand estimated at more than 3.8 million (of live cattle) in 2016, while the country’s government news agency Antara said Indonesia is to import up to 600,000 live cattle this year, it implies that nearly 16 percent of domestic beef demand is imported.

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