• Drinking Coffee Becomes Expensive when it Doesn’t Rain in Brazil

    Due to ongoing drought in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee grower (particularly the Arabica coffee beans variety), coffee futures have reached the highest level in over two years. Usually the month of October is a month that brings rainfall to the Minas Gerais region, the most important coffee growing region in Brazil. This year, however, there has been no rainfall (yet) in October meaning that the coffee beans are unable to ripe. Moreover, meteorologists estimate that the current drought will continue for at least another week.

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  • Indonesian Stocks & Rupiah Down on Global Economy and MPR Voting

    Both the Indonesian rupiah exchange rate and Indonesian stocks weakened sharply on Wednesday (08/10) due to internal and external factors. Externally, weakening stock indices on Wall Street on Tuesday (07/10) have a severe negative impact on the performance of Asian stocks today. Wall Street was down on the IMF’s downward revised outlook for global GDP growth in 2014 and 2015, as well as on Germany’s industrial production, which fell the most in five years in August 2014.

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  • Indonesia Political Update: Prabowo Controls Majority in MPR

    After a long plenary session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (or MPR), Zulkifli Hasan has been elected as the Speaker of the MPR for the period 2014-2019. Zulkifli Hasan, a former Indonesian Forestry Minister, is backed by the Merah-Putih coalition and thus his election constitutes another blow for president-elect Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi). The Merah-Putih coalition is a coalition of six political parties that support vindictive defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.

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  • Car Sales Update Indonesia: Car Production Capacity Expanding

    Although domestic car sales in Indonesia have again exceeded the psychological level of 100,000 vehicles per month, sales have fallen 12 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 101,801 units in September 2014. In September last year, car sales were heavily supported by the newly-introduced low cost green car (LCGC). Domestic car sales constitute an important indicator to measure consumer confidence and domestic consumption. Domestic consumption accounts for 55 percent of total economic growth in Indonesia.

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