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.
Bank Indonesia, the central bank of Indonesia, left its benchmark interest unchanged at the final (regular) policy meeting of 2017. The BI 7-day Reverse Repo Rate was kept at 4.25 percent on Thursday (14/12). Meanwhile, the deposit facility and lending facility were kept at 3.50 percent and 5.00 percent, respectively (effective per 15 December 2017).
Rudiantara, Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information, targets to see the availability of 4G networks across all Indonesian cities and districts by the year 2019. That year the government's Palapa Ring project is planned to be completed. This project, involving an undersea fiber-optic cable network that stretches across 13,000 km and an onshore network of nearly 22,000 km, will provide fast broadband Internet to Indonesians in the urban and rural areas.
Indonesia's benchmark thermal coal price (Harga Batubara Acuan, or HBA) - set on a monthly basis by Indonesia's Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry (and which is based on domestic and international coal indices) - fell 0.8 percent to USD $94.04 per metric ton in December 2017. This decline is attributed to falling coal demand in China where authorities decided to curb coal imports.
Indonesia's manufacturing sector has seen its contribution to overall Indonesian macroeconomic growth sliding over the past two decades. The cause is the lack of new and innovative products in this sector. This is the conclusion of Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Center for International Development and a Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
