The Today's Headlines section of Indonesia Investments is a daily updated section which contains the latest information with regard to topics that are currently causing headlines in Indonesia's media. Most of our headlines will cover political, economic and social matters. As a consequence of their recent nature, these topics may not have crystallized fully yet and can, therefore, lack a profound analysis. For publications with a more in-depth understanding of subjects, we refer you to our News, Financial or Business columns.
Earlier this week, Wednesday 27 June 2018 was declared a public national holiday by the Indonesian government through Presidential Decision No. 48/2018. Reason being the local elections that are held in 171 regions across Indonesia. A free day would provide more opportunities for workers to cast their vote. Earlier, the Indonesia Stock Exchange had already confirmed that it would operate as usual on this regional election day.
This year's coal production in Indonesia is likely to top last year's figure of 461 million tons. In fact, coal production in 2018 may also exceed the production quota that was set by the Indonesian government as the nation's coal miners are eager to boost coal production amid stronger coal prices. Starting from 2015 coal prices have been in an upward trend; a trend that is continuing to date.
On 25 June 2018 Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website over the past seven days. Most of the topics involve economy and market-related topics such as the coming local elections and Bank Indonesia's monetary policy meeting, the trade balance, disaster at Lake Toba, radical Islam, and more.
After a (revised) USD $1.63 billion trade deficit in April 2018, Indonesia posted another big trade deficit in the following month. In May 2018 Indonesia's trade deficit reached USD $1.52 billion, slightly lower from the deficit in the preceding month but still constituting a wider deficit than had been expected by analysts. Despite rising exports in May, a soaring crude oil price managed to put big pressures on Indonesia's trade balance.
