Minister of National Development Planning (Bappenas) Armida Alisjahbana is optimistic that Indonesia's inflation rate will stay below the six percent mark in 2014. After seeing inflation ease to 7.75 percent (year-on-year) in February (from 8.22 percent in January), Alisjahbana in fact believes that inflation can be kept below 5.5 percent (just within the target range of Bank Indonesia). Limited inflation is important in the context of poverty eradication. The country's poverty rate is targeted to ease to 10.5 by the year-end.

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Indonesia's February 2014 HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI), which measures the performance of the country's manufacturing industry, slipped to 50.5 from 51.0 in the previous month, thus indicating slowing growth (a reading above 50 indicates expansion in manufacturing activity, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction). Despite continued strong export orders, domestic demand weakened amid massive floods and volcanic eruptions at the start of the year.

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On Monday (03/03, Statistics Indonesia announced that inflation in Indonesia stood at 0.26 percent in February 2014. The largest inflationary pressures in this month were caused by higher prices of instant food products, drinks, cigarettes and tobacco. The country's February inflation rate was much lower than the 1.07 percent inflation recorded in the previous month (which was brought on by severe floods that disrupted distribution networks). Year-on-year (yoy) inflation eased to 7.75 percent from 8.22 percent in January 2014.

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On 2 March 2014, 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 in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic matters such as the G20 meeting in Sydney, foreign investment, Inflation, rupiah exchange rate performance, economic growth, ANTV's IPO, natural disasters, the presidential election, and more.

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Indonesia Investments updated the analysis of Indonesia's inflation rate in our Macroeconomic Indicators section. Indonesian inflation, which is traditionally more volatile and higher (due to robust economic growth) than in advanced countries or other emerging markets, accelerated recently after administered price adjustments in mid-2013 (particularly higher fuel prices). As a result, Bank Indonesia required to raise its benchmark interest rate (BI rate) gradually from 5.75 percent in June 2013 to 7.50 percent in November 2013.

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Indonesia Investments has updated its overview of Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) in the Macroeconomic Indicators section. Although Indonesia's GDP growth has slowed in the past two years amid global financial troubles and uncertainty in combination with a number of internal financial weaknesses (the country's wide current account deficit, high inflation and higher interest rate environment), it can still be labeled robust at 5.78 percent in 2013. This overview includes a discussion on GDP per capita and income distribution.

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Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) has sent a clear signal to those market participants that hope to see a lower benchmark interest rate (BI rate) in Southeast Asia's largest economy in the near future. Governor of Bank Indonesia Agus Martowardojo stated that there will be no lower BI rate as long as there is looming global uncertainty. On the contrary, the possibility of another BI rate hike is still there. In 2013, Bank Indonesia raised its BI rate on five occassions in order to combat inflation and curb the country's wide current account deficit.

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Ahead of the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Sydney on 22 and 23 February 2014, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report titled "Global Prospects and Policy Challenges", which discusses recent global economic developments as well as an outlook for the near future. According to the report, global economic activity picked up in the second half of 2013, largely due to improved conditions in advanced economies, thus boosting exports in many emerging markets.

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Deputy Governor of Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) Perry Warjiyo said that as a consequence of the legislative and presidential elections, scheduled for April and July 2014, household consumption in Indonesia will grow an extra 0.2 percent. Domestic consumption, particularly household consumption accounts for around 55 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Bank Indonesia has curbed further growth of household consumption by raising the benchmark interest rate (BI rate) last year.

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The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia/BI) left its benchmark interest rate (BI rate) unchanged at 7.50 percent in the Board of Governor's Meeting on Thursday (13/02/14). This decision was in line with market expectations as several economic indicators have improved. In recent days, the rupiah exchange rate has shown a marked improvement to IDR 12,055 per US dollar (Bloomberg Dollar Index) as pressures on Indonesia's current account balance are easing and Bank Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves are rising.

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With the Ramadan month just having started, it is important to take a look at food prices in Indonesia. The Ramadan-Idul Fitri period is typically a period when prices rise amid a significant increase in demand.

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It came as a big surprise to us when the central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) announced on 19 November 2020 (the day it concluded its two-day monetary policy meeting) that it decided to cut its benchmark interest rate (the seven-day reverse repo rate) by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent. Bank Indonesia also cut its deposit facility and lending facility rates by 25 basis points to 3.00 percent and 4.50 percent, respectively.

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The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) decided to cut its benchmark interest rate ("BI seven-day reverse repo rate") by 25 basis points (bps) to 4.75 percent at the two-day policy meeting on 19 and 20 February 2020.

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On Monday 1 July 2019 Statistics Indonesia (BPS) released Indonesia’s latest inflation data. The data show that headline inflation in Southeast Asia’s largest economy eased to a level of 0.55 percent month-on-month (m/m) in June 2019, down from 0.68 percent (m/m) in May 2019 when price pressures peaked due to Ramadan and Lebaran celebrations. This period always gives rise to a significant boost in consumption, hence prices of foodstuffs peak. Meanwhile, people also tend to buy new clothes, bags and shoes because they want to look good at these celebrations.

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There is concern that the Indonesian government's plan to curb price increases of (non-subsidized) fuels in Indonesia will impact negatively on private investors' enthusiasm to invest in Indonesia's oil and gas industry. Earlier this week Arcandra Tahar, Deputy Minister at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, informed that the government wants to regulate prices of fuels in order to keep inflation in check.

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The number of people who live in poverty in Indonesia fell by 1.19 million individuals, per September 2017, to 26.58 million, from 27.77 million poor people in March 2017 (Indonesia's Statistics Agency releases poverty data twice per year, covering the situation in the months March and September). This is a significant decline and therefore constitutes a very good development. In relative terms, Indonesia's poverty rate fell 0.52 percent from 10.64 percent to 10.12 percent (over the same period).

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Rising commodity prices are good for the Indonesian economy because the country is one of the world's biggest commodity exporters. However, rising commodity prices will also make it more difficult for the government to keep inflation within its target range of 2.5 - 4.5 percent year-on-year (y/y) in 2018.

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Bank Indonesia is content seeing Indonesia's inflation pace at a rather mild rate of 0.22 percent month-on-month (m/m) in July 2017. Dody Budi Waluyo, Executive Director of Economic and Monetary Policy at the central bank, said low and stable inflation is a positive asset for the economy as it supports the rupiah exchange rate as well as the investment climate and safeguards people's purchasing power.

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The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) maintained its benchmark interest rate - the 7-day reverse repurchase rate - at 4.75 percent at the policy meeting on 17-18 May 2017, a decision that is in line with analysts' forecasts. Bank Indonesia said the decision is consistent with its efforts to maintain macroeconomic and financial system stability "by driving the domestic economic recovery process", while continue to monitor external threats stemming from US policy directions and geopolitical conditions, specifically in the Korea Peninsula, as well as domestic threats stemming from inflationary pressures and ongoing consolidation in the banking and corporate sectors.

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It is highly unlikely to see the continuation of deflation in April. Last month (March 2017) Indonesia recorded 0.02 percent of deflation, primarily on the back of easing food prices amid the big harvest season. This harvest season will continue into April and therefore we expect few (to none) inflationary pressures stemming from food products. However, administered price adjustments (specifically another round of higher electricity tariffs in March) will impact of April's inflation figure, while consumer prices may also start to feel the impact of the approaching Ramadan month.

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