On 8 November 2015, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic subjects such as an analysis of Indonesia's Q3-2015 GDP growth, an inflation update, overviews of Islamic banking and the taxi services industry, a rupiah & stock market update, and more.

Read more ›

Unemployment in Indonesia increased to 6.18 percent of the labour force in August 2015, or 7.56 million people in absolute terms, from 5.81 percent in February (or 7.45 million unemployed people) as the economic slowdown led to layoffs and slower absorption of the workforce. In the second quarter of 2015 Indonesia's economy grew at the slowest pace in six years at 4.67 percent (y/y) and only managed to improve slightly (4.73 percent y/y) in the third quarter.

Read more ›

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced this morning that Indonesia's official third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 4.73 percent (y/y), slightly below analysts' consensus at 4.80 percent (y/y). However, Indonesia's economic expansion improved from the six-year low of 4.67 percent (y/y) in the preceding quarter. Still, growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy remains sluggish amid low commodity prices, weak global demand, weaker household consumption, the high interest rate environment, and stagnating investment.

Read more ›

Indonesian stocks and the rupiah are feeling the negative impact of news from the USA. Both Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said a Fed Fund Rate hike in December is a "live possibility" amid low US employment, continued GDP growth and confidence that inflation will rise to the US central bank's target range. As a result of these remarks gold dropped to a one-month low, stocks declined, while bond yields and the US dollar were pushed higher.

Read more ›

The economic slowdown and looming capital outflows related to higher US interest rates have been the main reasons why it is highly unlikely for the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) to achieve its revised target of seeing 22 companies conducting an initial public offering (IPO) on the IDX in 2015. So far this year, only 13 companies have listed on the IDX. However, reportedly, there are still about a dozen local companies interested to prepare an IPO in the next two months.

Read more ›

The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) expects to see a sharp slowdown in inflation in the last couple of months of 2015. Currently, the annual inflation pace stands at 6.83 percent (y/y). However, by the year-end Bank Indonesia estimates the consumer price index to have eased to 3.6 percent (y/y), which would be in the lower range of its 2015 inflation target (3-5 percent y/y). This update was given by Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo when meeting the Financial Sector Stability Coordination Forum (FKSSK).

Read more ›

With the exception of Japan, the majority of stock markets in Asia were under pressure on Wednesday (21/10) on concern about China's economic growth as Japan's exports to China fell 3.5 percent year-on-year in September. Today, it was announced that Japan posted a USD $95 billion trade deficit in September, worse than previously estimated, primarily on weakening exports due to slowing economic growth in China. However, Japanese stocks rose on stimulus hopes.

Read more ›

On Thursday (08/10) most emerging market currencies and stocks in Asia weakened as investors engaged in profit-taking (after having witnessed a remarkable rally over the past couple of days), while waiting for the release of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting minutes (due later today). The Indonesian rupiah had weakened 0.33 percent to IDR 13,867 per US dollar based on the Bloomberg Dollar Index while the benchmark Jakarta Composite Index was down 0.04 percent 4,487.09 by 15:00 pm local Jakarta time.

Read more ›

Car sales in Indonesia continued to decline in September 2015. Based on the latest data from the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo), a total of 92,478 vehicles were sold in Southeast Asia's largest economy in September, down 9.8 percent from sales in the same month last year. Indonesian car sales have been slowing since the all-time sales peak in 2013 amid the country's easing economic growth pace (triggering weaker purchasing power).

Read more ›

In its latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, released on Monday (05/10), the World Bank cut its forecast for economic growth in east Asian developing markets through 2017 primarily on China's economic slowdown. Developing East Asia is estimated to grow 6.5 percent in 2015, down from the 6.7 percent estimate in the World Bank April's update. However, the region remains one the world's key growth drivers.

Read more ›

For Indonesia, the month of April 2021 was particularly dominated by the arrival of Ramadan, the holy fasting month for the Muslim community. From the evening of 12 April 2021 Muslims fast (typically from sunrise to sunset) up to 12 May 2021. It is also known as a period of intensified praying and reading the Qur’an for the Muslim community as well as higher focus on generosity.

Read more ›

We detected a very positive development over the past two months. The number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia continued to decline heavily, a trend that began at the very start of February 2021. While on 1 February 2021, a total of 10,994 new COVID-19 infections were found, this number has almost halved as we enter April 2021 (see the chart below).

Read more ›

The other day, I had a conversation with my neighbors – a married couple who run a bakery and café in the city center of Yogyakarta. From previous conversations I knew that their business is heavily affected by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Even up to the point that they had to find a cheaper school for their oldest daughter.

Read more ›

It was a rough first month of the year for Indonesia. Obviously, the COVID-19 crisis persists (and there are signs to assume this crisis will persist throughout 2021) with the total number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Indonesia now having passed the one million mark.

Read more ›

It came as a big surprise to us when the central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) announced on 19 November 2020 (the day it concluded its two-day monetary policy meeting) that it decided to cut its benchmark interest rate (the seven-day reverse repo rate) by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent. Bank Indonesia also cut its deposit facility and lending facility rates by 25 basis points to 3.00 percent and 4.50 percent, respectively.

Read more ›

Across the world, concern over the COVID-19 pandemic grew in September 2020 as the number of new COVID-19 cases continued to rise rapidly. Worldwide, at the end of September 2020, some 34 million people have been infected with the virus, while more than one million people have died after contracting the virus.

Read more ›

On 05 August 2020, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) released Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) data for the second quarter of 2020. These data, which were highly anticipated among analysts and policymakers, are crucial to comprehend how – and to what extend – the self-imposed social and business restrictions (made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic) have impacted on the Indonesian economy.

Read more ›

Good news at the start of July 2020. The World Bank upgraded Indonesia’s economic status to an ‘upper-middle income country’ (from ‘lower-middle income country’) per 1 July 2020. The key consideration for the World Bank was that Indonesia’s gross national income (GNI) per capita increased from USD $3,840 in 2018 to USD $4,050 in 2019. This means that an upgrade was needed (see the table below).

Read more ›

It is becoming clearer by the day that economic growth in Indonesia, in 2020, will be derailed enormously. Analysts and authoritative institutions (both international and domestic ones) have, again, cut their forecasts for Indonesia’s economic growth in Q2-2020 (decisions that obviously also have consequences for Indonesia’s full-year 2020 economic growth outlooks).

Read more ›

The most recent published outlooks for global economic growth and global trade are more pessimistic than their earlier versions, with the main reason being that there is no quick solution to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. On the contrary, there is a high degree of uncertainty about when business can resume as usual. And, the closer we get to 2021, the less rosy outlooks are becoming for next year.

Read more ›