• Infrastructure Development in Indonesia to Accelerate?

    Indonesia’s rapidly growing population in combination with robust economic growth and underinvestment in infrastructure development has resulted in the country’s current lack of quality and quantity of infrastructure. This situation causes a steep increase in logistics costs and blocks efforts to develop and realize national and regional economic potentials (an efficient logistics system is crucial for socioeconomic development of Indonesia). However, government spending on infrastructure development is set to start soon.

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  • Eric Sugandi: Indonesian Rupiah May Touch IDR 13,900 per US Dollar

    Eric Sugandi, Chief Economist at the Standard Chartered Bank, expects Indonesia’s rupiah to have depreciated to IDR 13,900 per US dollar by the end of the year from IDR 13,339 currently (29/06) due to the impact of the bullish US dollar ahead of monetary tightening in the USA and the looming Greek exit from the Eurozone. Actually, this is a conservative prognosis. In case Indonesia’s central bank does not raise its benchmark interest rate (BI rate), currently at 7.50 percent, pressures on the rupiah may increase in fact increase further.

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  • Looming Greek Exit from Euro: Fall Indonesian Assets Relatively Limited

    Although Indonesia is considered as one of the Asian economies that is particularly vulnerable to a Greek exit from the euro (‘Grexit’), Indonesian stocks and the rupiah did not decline as heavily as other emerging market assets on Monday’s trading day (29/06), the first trading day after the collapse of talks between debt-ridden Greece and its international creditors. Indonesia’s benchmark Jakarta Composite Index fell 0.82 percent to 4,882.59 points while the rupiah depreciated 0.24 percent to IDR 13,339 per US dollar (Bloomberg Dollar Index).

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  • Update Foreign Ownership of Property (Luxurious Apartments) in Indonesia

    As reported previously, the Indonesian government plans to revise a law that bans foreign ownership of property in Indonesia (i.e. Government Regulation No. 41/1996 on Housing for Foreigners Residing in Indonesia). In a bid to boost tax revenue as well as the domestic property industry, the government will allow foreigners (expats) to buy, own, inherit and trade luxurious apartments that have a minimum value of IDR 5 billion (USD $375,000). It is important to note that any other type of property in Indonesia cannot be owned by foreigners.

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