Bagian Berita Hari Ini adalah bagian yang diperbarui secara teratur dan berisi informasi terkini mengenai topik-topik yang mewarnai pemberitaan di media massa Indonesia pada hari ini. Sebagian besar berita yang diterbitkan di sini meliputi hal politik, ekonomi dan sosial. Namun, seiring dengan penampilan berita terkini, tentu belum meliputi analisis yang mendalam. Silakan lihat kolom Berita, Keuangan atau Bisnis jika Anda ingin membaca topik tertentu dengan analisis yang lebih mendalam.
The government of Indonesia will announce a fourth stimulus package on Thursday (15/10). This new edition will focus on safeguarding employment in Indonesia. Due to the country's economic slowdown, concern about unemployment has risen. The Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPSI) recently said that over 62,000 Indonesian workers lost their jobs during the first nine months of 2015.
In a draft regulation, Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK), the government agency that regulates and supervises the financial services sector, proposes that the country's leading banks have set aside more capital - between 1 and 3.5 percent of their risk-weighted assets (a "capital surcharge") by December 2015 - as a buffer against financial market volatility risks. The new policy aims to strengthen Indonesia's financial system amid the country's economic slowdown and severe external pressures (looming higher US interest rates and China's slowdown).
On Tuesday (13/10), Chinese authorities announced that the country's trade balance widened to 376.2 billion yuan in September 2015, beating forecasts. China's exports contracted less than expected at -1.1 percent. However, China's imports (-17.7 percent) plunged more than expected and now recorded the eleventh month of straight declines. Although the balance is better than had been forecast, China's latest import and export data show again that the world's second-largest economy is plagued by a persistent slowdown.
Indonesia, the world's second-largest natural rubber producer, is expected to see slowing rubber output in 2016 on the back of the El Nino weather phenomenon as well as haze caused by forest fires on Sumatra and Kalimantan. Although the production decline may support rubber prices in the middle-long term, Indonesian rubber farmers are currently still plagued by rubber prices that have fallen to six-year lows due to reduced rubber demand from China, the world's largest rubber importer.
