Below is a list with tagged columns and company profiles.

Today's Headlines Macroeconomy

  • Indonesia Investments' Newsletter of 9 March 2014 Released

    On 9 March 2014, 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 matters such as an analysis of February 2014 inflation and the January 2014 trade deficit, the rupiah exchange rate, HSBC manufacturing PMI, Indonesia's new economic policy package, and more.

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  • Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves at USD $102.74 Billion in February 2014

    As had been confirmed by Agus Martowardojo, Governor of Bank Indonesia, earlier this week, Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves rose 2.1 percent to USD $102.74 billion at the end of February 2014, particularly due to strong capital inflows. According to Martowardojo, capital inflows in the first two months of 2014 exceed net capital inflows throughout 2013. Bank Indonesia regards the current foreign exchange reserves sufficient to underpin external sector resilience and maintain sustainable economic growth in Indonesia looking ahead.

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  • Indonesia Investments' Newsletter of 2 March 2014 Released

    On 2 March 2014, 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 matters such as the G20 meeting in Sydney, foreign investment, Inflation, rupiah exchange rate performance, economic growth, ANTV's IPO, natural disasters, the presidential election, and more.

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  • Updated Analysis Indonesia's Inflation Rate; What Factors Trigger Inflation?

    Indonesia Investments updated the analysis of Indonesia's inflation rate in our Macroeconomic Indicators section. Indonesian inflation, which is traditionally more volatile and higher (due to robust economic growth) than in advanced countries or other emerging markets, accelerated recently after administered price adjustments in mid-2013 (particularly higher fuel prices). As a result, Bank Indonesia required to raise its benchmark interest rate (BI rate) gradually from 5.75 percent in June 2013 to 7.50 percent in November 2013.

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  • Updated Overview of Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product Growth

    Indonesia Investments has updated its overview of Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) in the Macroeconomic Indicators section. Although Indonesia's GDP growth has slowed in the past two years amid global financial troubles and uncertainty in combination with a number of internal financial weaknesses (the country's wide current account deficit, high inflation and higher interest rate environment), it can still be labeled robust at 5.78 percent in 2013. This overview includes a discussion on GDP per capita and income distribution.

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  • Bank Indonesia Sees No Room for Lower Interest Rate Anytime Soon

    Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) has sent a clear signal to those market participants that hope to see a lower benchmark interest rate (BI rate) in Southeast Asia's largest economy in the near future. Governor of Bank Indonesia Agus Martowardojo stated that there will be no lower BI rate as long as there is looming global uncertainty. On the contrary, the possibility of another BI rate hike is still there. In 2013, Bank Indonesia raised its BI rate on five occassions in order to combat inflation and curb the country's wide current account deficit.

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  • European Union Eager to Increase Foreign Direct Investment in Indonesia

    Colin Crooks, Deputy Head of the European Union delegation to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and ASEAN, said that Europe's businesses are eager to invest in Indonesia. However, the European Union (EU) hopes that several issues that are blocking the Indonesian economy (particularly related to trade and investments) from growing further are dealt with. Crooks pointed at EuroCham's position papers, which discuss bottlenecks to Indonesia's investment climate and provides recommendations for its improvement.

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  • Indonesia Investments' Newsletter of 23 February 2014 Released

    On 23 February 2014, 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 matters such as the G20 meeting in Sydney, foreign confidence in Indonesia's capital markets, the Gini ratio, coal royalties, the current account deficit, infrastructure development, and more.

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  • Indonesia Investments' Newsletter of 16 February 2014 Released

    On 16 February 2014, 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 matters such as Bank Indonesia's benchmark interest rate, the rupiah exchange rate, tourism, trade balance, the eruption of Mount Kelud, cement sales, an update on the MP3EI, and more.

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  • Indonesian Rupiah Exchange Rate: Sharp Appreciation on Economic Data

    Indonesia's rupiah exchange rate continues its sharp appreciation on Valentine's day (14/02). Based on the Bloomberg Dollar Index, the currency was up 0.80 percent to IDR 11,880 per US dollar at 9:56 local Jakarta time. Yesterday (13/02), the rupiah had recorded a 0.89 pecent gain. This recent appreciating trend of the rupiah is caused by international investors' renewed confidence in Indonesia's macroeconomic fundamentals. Particularly the improvement in the country's current account deficit is well received by investors.

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Latest Columns Macroeconomy

  • Indonesia's Main Stock Index (IHSG): the Ship that is Rocked by a Storm

    For several weeks now, Indonesia's main stock index (IHSG) has been experiencing a sharp correction. As I wrote in my previous columns, market participants have been waiting for several important macro economic data, to wit Indonesia's economic growth figure for the second quarter of 2013, the July 2013 inflation rate, and the country's trade balance statistics for the first six months of this year. Now all above results have been released, we can analyze further the impact of these macroeconomic results as well as investors' reaction to it.

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  • Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves Fall, Current Account Deficit Grows

    The foreign exchange reserves of Indonesia keep on falling from its historical peak of USD $124.64 billion in August 2011 to USD $92.67 billion at the end of July 2013. This development seems to highlight long-standing weaknesses in Indonesia's sovereign's external finances, as credit agency Fitch Ratings detected on several occasions before. The republic of Indonesia is currently characterized by four deficits, to wit a current account deficit, a balance of payments deficit, a trade balance deficit and a fiscal deficit.

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  • Slowing Growth in Indonesian Cement Sales Continues in Semester II

    Cement sales in Indonesia grew by seven percent to 32.9 million tons in the period January to July 2013. This pace of growth is significantly lower compared to the double-digit cement growth rate last year and thus forms another sign of cooling economic growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy (cement sales are a good indicator to measure the state of economic growth of a country). A slowdown in domestic cement sales is likely to continue in the second half of 2013, partly due to a decline in infrastructure projects.

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  • Revised Tax Holiday and Tax Allowance to Attract Investments in Indonesia

    Apart from the five tax incentives that I have mentioned in a previous column, the Indonesian government also intends to ease two other tax rules in order to boost investments in Indonesia from 2014 onwards. These are the tax holiday and tax allowance. Relaxation of the tax holiday involves an alteration to the period as well as the size of the investment, and relaxation of procedural difficulties. Relaxation of the tax allowance involves the revision of the number of sectors that are eligible and a relaxation of procedures in the form of tax clearance.

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  • Bank Indonesia Raises Interest Rate to fight Inflation and Support the Rupiah

    Today, Bank Indonesia surprised many analysts and investors by raising its benchmark interest rate by 50 bps to 6.50 percent. Indonesia's central bank assessed that this measure is the correct one with regard to supporting the IDR rupiah (which is one of the worst Asian currencies against the US dollar this year) and to fight higher inflation after the government decided to cut fuel subsidies in June. It expects inflation to peak in July at about 2.3 percent (month to month) but to moderate soon afterwards.

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  • Central Bank of Indonesia Outlines its Macroeconomic Assumptions

    Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) expects that economic growth of Indonesia in 2013 will not meet the government's target as has been set in the revised State Budget (APNB-P). Last month, both government and parliament of Indonesia agreed on a revised GDP growth assumption of 6.3 percent. However, Bank Indonesia believes that, due to slowing domestic consumption and investments in the current global economic context, the growth is more likely to fall between 5.8 and 6.2 percent.

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  • Draghi's Statement Results in Rising Stock Indices in Europe on Thursday

    Without any support from the United States, where Wall Street was closed due to the 4th of July festivities, stock indices in Europe found their way up. President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, caused positive market sentiments after stating that the interest rate will remain low for a long while and that the current monetary (easing) policy will remain unchanged. Stock indices in Germany, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands went up between 2.1 and 3.1 percent on Thursday's trading day (04/07).

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  • Two Important Questions in Indonesia's Highly Volatile Market

    Indonesia's main stock index (IHSG) moved wildly last week. During the first two days of the week, the index fell to 4,609.95 points, which is considerably below its record high level of 5,214 on 20 May 2013. However, on the last trading day of the week (14/06), a 3.32 percent recovery occurred. Generally, it were domestic market participants that supported the IHSG. Foreign market participants continued to sell parts of their Indonesian stock portfolios. Total foreign selling totaled IDR 9 trillion (USD $910.4 million) last week.

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  • Press Release of Bank Indonesia: BI Rate Raised by 25 bps to 6.00%

    Less than 24 hours after having raised the overnight deposit facility rate (known as Fasbi) by 25 bps to 4.25 percent, Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) also raised its benchmark interest rate (known as the BI rate) by 25 bps to 6.0 percent. Both these policy responses were conducted in order to support the IDR rupiah, which is one of the worst performing Asian currencies against the US dollar in 2013. Indonesia's central bank expects growing inflationary pressures as the Indonesian government intends to cut fuel subsidies this June.

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  • Indonesia's Current Account Deficit Improves in the First Quarter of 2013

    Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia or BI) announced on Wednesday (15/05/13) that the country's external balance has improved during Q1-2013 as non-oil and gas trade were up. Indonesia's current account deficit stood at USD $5.3 billion (2.4 percent of GDP) in Q1-2013, compared to the previous quarter's deficit of USD $7.6 billion (3.5 percent of GDP). Indonesia has experienced a widening trade deficit, although it recorded a trade surplus of USD $304.90 in March, the first trade surplus since September 2012.

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