Asian stocks extended declines on Wednesday morning (03/02) as oil prices are again flirting with the USD $30 per barrel mark. Overnight, Brent crude fell 4.5 percent to USD $32 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate plunged 5.5 percent to just below the USD $30 per barrel mark. In combination with concern about the sluggish economy of China it led to another round of global selloff. Overnight the Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.8 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 1.9 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index lost 2.2 percent.

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Based on the latest data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Indonesia only managed to welcome 9.73 million foreign tourists in 2015, hence failing to achieve the government target at 10 million foreign tourist arrivals. However, BPS also mentioned that it has developed a new counting system. According to this new system the number of people that are counted as foreign tourists in 2015 is 10.41 million, thus considerably exceeding the target set for 2015. What are the differences between these two systems?

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Jakarta on Monday (01/02) to discuss bilateral issues including trade and investment. High on the agenda was the topic of solar power. Reportedly, Hungary plans to invest USD $20 million for the construction of a 5 megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Central Tapanuli (North Sumatra). Other topics included the manufacturing sector, fishery sector, the digital economy, and the promotion of peace and stability.

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Asian stocks were mixed on Monday (01/02). However, Indonesia's benchmark Jakarta Composite Index rose 0.21 percent to 4,624.63 points after a volatile trading day (one hour before trading closed, the index was down more than one percent). Furthermore, the Indonesian rupiah appreciated markedly, while there occurred inflows into bonds. It seems that Japan's surprise move to introduce negative interest rates managed to offset the negative impact of weak manufacturing activity in China and falling crude oil prices.

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