Below is a list with tagged columns and company profiles.
Latest Reports COVID-19
On Tuesday (7.09.2021) Indonesia Investments released its August 2021 report. This report discusses a range of subjects - related to political developments, the economy and social matters - that occurred in Indonesia in the month of August 2021.
As expected, the trade balance of Indonesia showed a widening surplus in July 2021. According to the latest data that were released by Indonesia’s Statistical Agency (in Indonesian: Badan Pusat Statistik, or BPS), the country’s trade surplus reached USD $2.59 billion in July 2021, nearly doubling from the trade surplus one month earlier.
Starting from November 2020 the manufacturing sector of Indonesia had shown a gradual recovery after the unprecedented collapse in Q2-2020. It proved to be a very superficial recovery.
While we expected to see some mild deflation in Indonesia amid subdued demand and consumption due to the tighter social and business restrictions on Java and Bali throughout the month of July 2021, there was some modest inflation last month.
On 05 August 2021 Indonesia’s Statistical Agency (Badan Pusat Statistik, henceforth BPS) released the official gross domestic product (GDP) data for the second quarter of 2021.
On Thursday (05.08.2021) Indonesia Investments released its July 2021 report. This 182-page report discusses a range of subjects - related to political developments, the economy and social matters that occurred in Indonesia in the month of July 2021.
Those who have been following the international news should be aware that there are growing signs that the existing COVID-19 vaccines are not enough to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In Singapore, vaccinated individuals now account for about 75 percent of the city state's COVID-19 infections.
On 8 June 2021 Indonesian Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir told Commission VI of the House of Representatives (DPR) that he proposes to raise the budget for capital injections into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in 2022. The main reason is that the SOE Ministry wants to inject (additional) capital into 12 SOEs.
While in May 2021 Indonesian inflation accelerated more than we had predicted, in June 2021 we saw the opposite: inflation eased much more than we had anticipated. In fact, Indonesia experienced deflation.
Lockdowns and restrictions imposed by governments around the globe in an effort to curb the further spread of COVID-19 in society as well as people’s fear to contract COVID-19 resulted in an unprecedented decline in consumption, production, trade, tourism and investment, particularly in the second quarter of 2020.
Latest Columns COVID-19
On 5 May 2020 Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS), a non-departmental government agency, released the first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data of Indonesia for the year 2020. These data were highly anticipated as policymakers, analysts, and stakeholders are particularly interested in finding out to what extent damage has been done to the Indonesian economy by the self-imposed restrictions.
The economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 crisis are becoming increasingly clear and frightening. All the self-imposed restrictions on business and social behavior, taken by governments across the world, may protect people’s health to a significant extent, but the policy measures also have devastating economic and social consequences as economic activity nosedives, and businesses collapse. This results in unprecedented mass layoffs as well as growing poverty.
It is less than one week before the celebration of an important Islamic religious holiday: Eid al-Fitr, commonly known as “Lebaran” in Indonesia. It is a day to glorify renewed hope. And, just like other religious days, it is a very essential day, and the most momentous celebration of the year in Indonesia.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has caused something extraordinary in Indonesia, and in the world; something we had not seen – in the case of Indonesia –since the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, namely: a sudden and dramatic drop in household consumption and business activity. Due to government policies, designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country and thereby safeguarding people’s health, the movement of people is heavily restricted, while companies in a wide range of sectors have had to close their doors (until further notice).
In mid-April 2020 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its latest ‘World Economic Outlook’ report. It is in fact not a complete report. Considering the global economy has changed dramatically over the past months, the IMF’s previous update of the World Economic Outlook (released in January 2020) simply had no validity anymore, and therefore the IMF released one new chapter in mid-April 2020 (with the full report set to follow in May 2020).
Besides imposing restrictions and offering stimuli to affected people and businesses, the Indonesian government made another important decision with reference to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Through Presidential Decree No. 12/2020 on the Determination of COVID-19 as a Non-Natural Disaster, signed by President Widodo on 13 April 2020, the novel coronavirus was declared a ‘national disaster’.
The Indonesian rupiah, which had been under heavy pressure in March 2020 amid novel coronavirus (COVID-19) panic, rebounded in April 2020 (albeit policymakers emphasize that the Indonesian rupiah remains undervalued at the moment).
Better late than never! On 10 April 2020 large-scale social restrictions were imposed in the capital city of Jakarta through Jakarta Gubernatorial Regulation No. 33/2020, and Jakarta Gubernatorial Decree No. 380/2020. The regulation and decree, which both aim at curtailing the further spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Jakarta, were imposed around five weeks after the very first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Indonesia (namely in Depok, a city located within the Jakarta metropolitan area).
The first of May is celebrated as International Labors’ Day which should be a tribute to workers’ contributions to the flourishment and well-being of a country’s economic growth. However, today, there are more than 2 million workers in Indonesia being laid off and placed on furlough due to economic disruption caused by COVID-19 outbreak.
After the surprise in February 2020 (when – contrary to expectations and in stark contrast to the global trend – manufacturing activity in Indonesia soared), matters turned normal in March 2020. In line with expectations, Indonesia’s manufacturing production and new orders contracted at record rates in March, making companies decide to cut back sharply on their purchasing activity and input inventories. Business conditions in fact deteriorated at a rate not seen before in the history of the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) survey.
