For the second time in history Indonesia hosted the Asian Games (the first time being in 1962). Between 18 August and 2 September 2018 the event was held in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang. While, initially, there had been some concern about whether all infrastructure would be ready before the start of the Games and whether radicals would be eager to attack, at the end of the day everything went rather smoothly even though Indonesia only had two years and four months to prepare itself for the event (after Vietnam pulled out suddenly).

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It was a welcome surprise when Indonesia’s Statistics Agency (in Indonesian: Badan Pusat Statistik, or BPS) announced in early August that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 5.27 percent year-on-year (y/y) in the second quarter of 2018.

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It is finally clear which pairs will compete in Indonesia’s 2019 presidential election. On Saturday August 10th, 2018 (only hours before the deadline ended), political parties officially registered their presidential and vice-presidential candidates at the General Elections Commission (in Indonesian: Komisi Pemilihan Umum, or KPU). As was widely assumed, only two pairs will compete in the 2019 presidential election. Thus, there are also two coalitions of political parties.

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According to the latest data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), poverty in Indonesia has fallen to a historic low. BPS provides an update on the country’s poverty statistics twice per year, covering the state of poverty in the months of March and September. On 16 July 2018 the agency, which is a non-ministerial government institution, released the March 2018 data. And these data showed a welcome surprise.

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