• Japanese Investment in Indonesia Slowed in 2014 but Rebound Detected

    Japanese investment in Indonesia has declined drastically in 2014 due to concern about the stability of Indonesian politics. Investment realization tumbled to USD $2.7 billion in 2014 from USD $4.7 billion in the previous year. The investment climate of Indonesia in 2014 was plagued by concern about the ‘political year’, referring to the legislative and presidential elections that were organized and the uncertainty they brought about as it was a tight race between market favorite Joko Widodo and controversial candidate Prabowo Subianto.

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  • Indonesian Rupiah Depreciates Sharply on Greek Default Concern

    The Indonesian rupiah exchange rate is depreciating sharply on Thursday (12/02). By 12:10 pm local Jakarta timezone, the currency had fallen 1.11 percent to IDR 12,865 per US dollar (Bloomberg Dollar Index). Market participants have become increasingly concerned about a Greek default or exit from the Eurozone and react by selling emerging market assets in search of safe havens such as the US dollar. Yesterday (11/02), the Eurozone’s finance ministers could not reach agreement on the Greek debt situation.

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  • IMF & Moody’s Outlook on the Indonesian and World Economy

    Benedict Bingham, Senior Resident Representative for Indonesia at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), expects that the central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) will remain committed to the tighter monetary policy in a bid to safeguard the country’s fiscal fundamentals amid external pressures. Apart from sluggish global economic growth, the looming interest rate hike in the USA (later this year) is expected to rock Indonesia as it will trigger capital outflows from emerging markets.

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  • Indonesian Cement Sales Slowed in January 2015 due to Rainy Weather

    Domestic cement sales in Indonesia fell 2.9 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 4.5 million tons in January 2015. A fall in cement consumption was detected in almost all regions of Indonesia, possible related to heavy rains that have plagued several areas in January and led to a slowdown in construction and infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Widodo Santoso, Head of the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), said that the largest declines in cement sales in the first month of 2015 were recorded in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

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