Indonesian stocks continue to fall on today’s trading day (28/04). After having declined 3.49 percent yesterday, the benchmark Jakarta Composite Index fell a further 1.00 percent during the first trading session on Tuesday. Investors, particularly foreign ones, are still concerned about weak first quarter financial results of listed Indonesian companies, signalling that the country’s economic growth in Q1-2015 will be disappointing too. Furthermore, the market is waiting for results of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting which is set to start today.

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The benchmark stock index of Indonesia - Jakarta Composite Index (IHSG) - fell sharply on Monday (27/04) amid mixed regional stock markets. Three main factors caused the weak performance of Indonesian stocks. Firstly, several key companies posted weak first quarter corporate earnings. Secondly, Indonesia’s economic growth in the first quarter may fall below 5 percent (y/y), which would be a six-year low. Lastly, Indonesia is getting bad press around the globe due to imminent executions of convicted foreign drug traffickers.

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On the sidelines of the 24th World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia, Indonesia’s Chief Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil said that - despite global challenges - the government maintains its economic growth target of 5.7 percent (y/y) in 2015. However, he added that it will require great effort to achieve this target. One key strategy to achieve the target is to attract foreign investment through several policies including tax incentives and by easing the country’s bureaucratic hurdles for investment permits.

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Two important indicators to measure the condition of an economy are car and cement sales as both statistics provide valuable information about people’s purchasing power (and consumer confidence) as well as infrastructure and property development. In the first quarter of 2015, Indonesia’s car and cement sales declined (compared to the same period in the preceding year), triggering concern that economic growth will fall accordingly. In the first quarter of 2014, Indonesia’s GDP growth had already slowed to 5.14 percent (y/y).

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The deadline for tenders for various infrastructure projects in Indonesia has been extended by the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry because it needs more time to determine the number of projects to be offered and to calculate new budget allocations for these projects. Ministry official Hediyanto W. Husaini said that his ministry is optimistic that by early May 2015 all construction projects can be tendered. Currently, only 9,578 construction projects (about 70 percent of total planned projects) can be tendered.

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The World Bank released its latest Indonesia Economic Quarterly report on 18 March 2015. In this report, entitled ‘High Expectations’, the World Bank states that it praises the early reform progress in several key areas such as fuel subsidies as well as more key reforms that are underway. This raises high expectations about the Indonesian economy in the middle and longer term. However, the government also faces challenges to implement further complex structural reforms amid subdued growth prospects.

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The Indonesian government will speed up construction of the 2,700 kilometers-long Trans-Sumatra toll road by revising Presidential Regulation No 100/2014 on Toll Road Construction in Sumatra and by accelerating the land acquisition process. The Trans-Sumatra toll road will become the main highway on Sumatra that connects Banda Aceh in the north to Bandar Lampung in the south through 24 sections stretching across ten provinces. President Joko Widodo said that construction of the highway is to start in April 2015.

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On Tuesday (03/03) the governments of Indonesia and the Netherlands launched a comprehensive five-year public-private partnership (PPP) for enhancing coastal safety at the northern coastal line of Central Java. By joining forces in this 5 million euro project (financed by the Dutch Sustainable Water Fund), mangrove restoration, small scale hard-engineering, and sustainable land use are to result in reduced erosion risk at the coastal area. Key to the project is the use natural protection to strengthen sustainable coastal engineering.

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Indonesian Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said that the Cilamaya port project in Karawang (West Java) may be tendered this year to the private sector. The central government is currently engaged in the preparation of the terms of reference (TOR) for the project. Through the construction of the Cilamaya port, which will occupy 2,000 hectares of land some 65 kilometers east of Jakarta, the government aims to reduce the country’s logistics costs and ease traffic at the Tanjung Priok port, the largest Indonesian seaport, in Jakarta.

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The Indonesian government wants to limit investment opportunities in the country’s cement industry in an attempt to maintain a healthy business climate. Indonesian Industry Ministry official Harjanto said that Indonesia’s current cement production capacity is more than enough to meet domestic demand. Given that most established cement producers have expansion plans the influx of new cement producers leads to an oversupply thus reducing companies’ profit margins. The nation’s cement production capacity stands at 77 million tons per year.

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Based on the latest reports - and contrary to earlier plans - the Indonesian government will not postpone the development of 15,200 MW of power projects. Earlier the government said it wanted to delay various power projects in an effort to curtail imports, thus improve the country's current account balance and ease heavy pressures on the rupiah exchange rate.

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If we take a look at Indonesia's central government spending in the first four months of 2018, then we detect something interesting. Overall, government spending has grown in the January-April 2018 period (compared to the same period one year earlier). However, growth in government spending is led by rising social assistance spending and rising subsidy spending. Meanwhile, growth of infrastructure spending has been much less robust. Does this mean that the Indonesian government has curtailed infrastructure development spending in order to relieve rising pressures on the budget deficit?

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The tourism industry of Indonesia is one of the most important industries in terms of the nation's foreign exchange earnings. However, compared to its neighboring countries - specifically Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand - Indonesia lags behind in terms of foreign visitor arrivals. This "failure" is partly attributed to the weak state of Indonesia's infrastructure. This includes the lack of enough airports or the lack of enough aircraft and passenger handling capacity at existing airports.

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Cement sales were good in January 2018 for Indonesian cement manufacturers, growth that is attributed to rising cement demand on the back of the government-led infrastructure development program, particularly the construction of toll roads. Indonesia's cement consumption rose 9.9 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 5.68 million tons in January 2018.

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The completion of the high-speed Jakarta-Bandung railway in West Java is expected to see a delay due to land acquisition and licensing troubles. The USD $5.9 billion project is now expected to be completed in 2020, one year later than originally planned.

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Revenue and profit of Wijaya Karya (Wika), one of Indonesia's biggest construction companies, is partly dependent on developments surrounding the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project. Earlier this month, Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordered an evaluation of this railway project, which saw groundbreaking in 2016 but has shown limited progress ever since.

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It was a solid year for the Indonesian economy. The macroeconomic fundamentals of the nation have strengthened due to the hard work of the Indonesian government under the leadership of President Joko Widodo. However, there is no room for complacency as there remain major bottlenecks, while legislative and presidential elections - in which voters can approve or disapprove Widodo's performance - are scheduled for 2019.

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Last week Indonesian President Joko Widodo inaugurated the 41.7-kilometer Parbarakan-Sei Rampah section of the Medan-Kualanamu-Tebing Tinggi toll road in North Sumatra. This Parbarakan-Sei Rampah section is now the longest piece of toll road on the island of Sumatra and will boost connectivity in the province of North Sumatra.

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In its latest report, the World Bank stated that Indonesia's macroeconomic fundamentals are solid and have been strengthening amid the central government's eagerness to implement critical structural reforms, while investment growth rose to the highest levels since the last quarter of 2015 (mainly investment in buildings and structures).

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Indonesian Minister of Home Affairs, Tjahjo Kumolo, made a statement in support of the Lippo Group's controversial Meikarta integrated township project. At the Indonesia Future City & REI Mega Expo 2017 on Thursday (14/09) Kumolo said Indonesia's regional governments should not unnecessarily obstruct private projects that help to develop the regional economy. He cited Meikarta as an example.

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