The 2018 Asian Games began a few days ago, and the headlines have been filled with stories of the athletes’ heroic achievements. Just as in the Roman Empire, this grand event has managed to draw public attention away from various problems, such as the heated preparations for the presidential elec...
After displaying some pessimism, Kompas Daily, the most prestigious and credible newspaper in Indonesia, reported the return of optimism in the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) industries. A number of retailers gave testimony to the optimism they shared. The FMCG industries also reported better-...
The month of June was full of interesting economic activity. In the first half of the month, the majority of Indonesians were finishing their fasting month. The peak was the big holidays, similar to the Christmas holidays in western countries. This year, the holidays lasted for around 10 days, wh...
At a special policy meeting on May 30, Bank Indonesia announced another increase in the benchmark rate by 25 basis points, to 4.75 percent. The rate increase, as we suggested in our most recent report, was able to reverse expectations, so that the exchange rate of the rupiah turned to Rp. 13 thou...
Like many other emerging economies, the Indonesian economy has been challenged by the policy undertaken by the US Fed, which has raised its interest rates for the last few quarters and has strongly indicated it will raise the Fed Funds rate further. Being a small open economy, Indonesia is not im...
The Indonesian economy is currently facing a new challenge of “monetary uncertainty”. Part of the reflection of this uncertainty is the renewed volatility in the exchange rate of the rupiah.
Having achieved a certain level of stability for the past few years, the Indonesian economy once again ...
A few weeks ago, one of the hot issues in Indonesia was the term of the Central Bank Governor, which was about to expire in May this year. Initially, it was almost taken for granted that Agus Martowardoyo would get an extension for a second term. However, the issue came up when Dr. Perry Warjiyo,...
The Indonesian banking industry has shown an interesting development in recent days. In the past few years the banking industry was busy consolidating after a hike in its non-performing loans, but the consolidation has been more than halfway completed. The rise in non-performing loans was due to ...
The Indonesian capital market has seen new momentum since the beginning of 2018. After climbing by almost 20% in 2017 to reach a level of 6,355.65, the stock market index continued to rise to reach over 6,600 in the third week of January 2018, meaning that in a period of three weeks the Indonesia...
New optimism has emerged in the period approaching the end of 2017. While in the first half of the year skepticism abounded because of the slow growth in corporate sales of many companies, in Q3 the situation improved a bit. In the last quarter of this year, new optimism was driven by the bright...
The Indonesian economy displayed a slight improvement in Q3 2017, posting a rate of growth of 5.06%, which was modestly better than the 5.01% achieved in Q2 2017. At the same time, the Business Tendency Index also showed increased optimism compared with the previous quarter. One interesting fact ...
Indonesian politics will be very busy in the presidential election year in 2019. The first taste of that political year was seen early, during the election for Governor of the Jakarta Metropolitan early this year. However, in 2018, Indonesian politics will be even busier, with a number of regiona...
Prospects remain bright, bolstered by stable macro conditions, a rising middle class, and improving institutions. Infrastructure development is a key focus of the government, especially in tourism.
The tourism industry has become another prime mover of the Indonesian economy. Long experiencing relatively slow growth, the industry has gotten increasing attention from the new government. In fact, optimism abounds that in the next few years, the tourism industry will become one of the largest...
Indonesian quasi-sovereigns are mostly in the form of state-owned enterprises. Currently there are over 100 SOEs, and many of them also have subsidiaries. Among the many Indonesian SOEs, Pertamina stands out as the largest company. Pertamina has several subsidiaries, and some of the subsidiaries ...