The Today's Headlines section of Indonesia Investments is a regularly updated section which contains the latest information with regard to topics that are currently causing headlines in Indonesia's media. Most of our headlines 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.
Indonesian cement producers urge the government to protect the nation's existing cement manufacturers that have invested heavily in expanding production capacity in recent years but are plagued by the combination of weak domestic cement consumption and Indonesia's rising overall cement production capacity. Both factors are the reason behind the oversupply of cement in Southeast Asia's largest economy.
On 16 July 2017, 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 last seven days. Most of the topics involve economy-related matters such as Indonesia's purchasing power, expansion of the Sinarmas Group in London, the coal price, initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, foreign investment, and much more.
Also on the regional level there exists protectionism in Indonesia. One example comes from West Sumatra, a province that is known for its beautiful countryside and Minangkabau culture. Local authorities in West Sumatra have closed opportunities for modern national convenience stores - such as Indomaret and Alfamart - to enter the province in an attempt to protect the local (small and mid-sized) retailers.
The property sector of Indonesia remains somewhat depressed. This is reflected by sluggish demand for house ownership credit (in Indonesian: kredit pemilikan rumah, abbreviated as KPR) and apartment ownership credit (kredit pemilikan apartment, or KPA) so far this year. According to data from Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) KPR and KPA credit disbursement growth stood at 7.7 percent on a year-on-year (y/y) basis in May 2017, slowing from a 7.8 percent (y/y) growth pace in the preceding month.
