Moody's Investors Service, one of the globe's three big credit rating agencies, affirmed Indonesia's Baa3 issuer rating, Baa3 senior unsecured bond ratings, and (P)Baa3 senior unsecured medium term note program rating. However, it also upgraded its credit outlook on Indonesia from "stable" to "positive", implying that Indonesia comes a bit closer to a rating upgrade. Such upgrade would trigger capital inflows (on the back of stronger investor confidence), while the cost of funds would become cheaper for the government when issuing government bonds.

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The government of Indonesia plans to sell another series of sharia-compliant government retail bonds (in Indonesian: Sukuk Negara Ritel, abbreviated Sukri). The offering period is planned for 4 February - 2 March 2017. However, Suminto, Islamic Financing Director at the Budget Financing and Risk Management Office within Indonesia's Finance Ministry, did not inform about the indicative target for this issuance. He only informed local media that the target of the bond issuance will be in line with the government's financing needs and existing market conditions.

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The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) decided to leave its interest rate environment unchanged at the January 2017 policy meeting on Thursday (19/01). The benchmark seven-day reverse repurchase rate (BI 7-day RR Rate) was kept at 4.75 percent, while the Deposit Facility and Lending Facility rates were maintained at 4.00 percent and 5.50 percent, respectively. The decisions of Bank Indonesia are in line with analysts' forecasts. Due to risks of capital outflows Indonesia's central bank had few room to ease monetary policy.

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Whether it was caused by pressure from the Indonesian government, or, whether US multinational banking and financial services firm JP Morgan Chase itself came to the conclusion that its decision to double downgrade Indonesia from overweight to underweight (in November 2016) was excessive remains unknown. What is known is that JP Morgan upgraded its investment recommendation on Indonesian stocks to neutral from underweight on Monday (16/01). Main reason for this upgrade is that redemption and bond volatility risks have now played out, in the view of JP Morgan.

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