The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) stated in a recently published report that Indonesia has made significant progress in reducing the country’s child mortality rate. According to the report, entitled “Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed (Progress Report 2015)", Indonesia’s mortality rate for children below the age of five years currently stands at 27 deaths per 1,000 births, a significant improvement from the 85 deaths per 1,000 births that was recorded in 1990.

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Despite the hosting of the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show 2015 (20-30 August 2015), Indonesian car sales continued to shrank in August due to people’s weaker purchasing power amid the country’s economic slowdown. In August a total of 90,077 cars were sold in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, down 6.9 percent from the same month last year, according to the latest data from the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo).

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The government of Indonesia is still busy preparing the policy package that was announced last week by Chief Economics Minister Darmin Nasution. Earlier it was reported that this stimulus package, expected to be finalized this month, involves deregulation and tax holidays designed to boost economic activity in Indonesia as well as to attract foreign currency inflows. The government will also look at how it can provide incentives to accelerate smelter development in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

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Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will arrive in Indonesia (Jakarta) today (01/09) to participate in the two-day conference titled ‘Future of Asia’s Finance: Financing for Development 2015’, organized by the IMF and Indonesia’s central bank (Bank Indonesia). Contrary to recent rumors, Lagarde's visit is not related to Indonesia seeking a new loan from the IMF.

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Agus Martowardojo, Governor of Indonesia’s central bank (Bank Indonesia), said on Thursday (27/08) that the nation’s economic growth pace is expected to reach 4.89 percent (y/y) in full-year 2015, down from 5.0 percent (y/y) in the preceding year and it would mark the fifth straight year of economic slowing. Earlier this week, Bank Indonesia had already revised down its economic growth forecast to the range of 4.7 - 5.1 percent (y/y) in 2015 (from 5.0 - 5.4 percent previously).

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Through capital injections the Indonesian government aims to enhance the role of various state-owned enterprises (SOEs) within the process of economic development. In the recently unveiled 2016 State Budget draft, which still requires approval from Indonesia’s House of Representatives, the government allocated a total of IDR 48.2 trillion (approx. USD $3.6 billion) to 24 SOEs in five priority sectors: food security, infrastructure & maritime development, energy security, strategic industry development, and national economic autonomy.

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On Friday (14/08) the Indonesian government unveiled its 2016 State Budget draft at a session in the House of Representatives (DPR). The draft is important as it shows government targets regarding the macroeconomy of Indonesia and it shows on what fields the government will focus in terms of public spending. The government - led by Indonesian President Joko Widodo - is optimistic that economic growth will finally rebound after four years of slowing economic growth as its 2016 GDP growth target was set at 5.5 percent (y/y).

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As Indonesia’s economic growth continued to slow in the second quarter of 2015, the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) warned of increasing unemployment in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Each 1 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth can generate between 200,000 and 300,000 new jobs in Indonesia. As such, when economic growth slows, society misses out on new jobs and with around two million Indonesians entering the labor force each year, job generation is an important task of the government.

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In response to the release of Indonesia’s official Q2-2015 GDP growth figure, which puts the country’s economic growth pace at 4.67 percent year-on-year (a six-year low), President Joko Widodo said the economy of Indonesia is bound to improve in the second quarter of the year, particularly from September onwards. Widodo said slowing economic growth was the result of troubled government budget absorption at both the central level and regional level. Moreover, the country has been plagued by external factors.

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Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced today (05/08) that the Indonesian economy grew 4.67 percent (y/y) in the second quarter of 2015, the slowest pace since 2009. However, the result was in line with expectation. Most analysts assumed that economic growth would continue to slow as there has been no rebound in global commodity prices, interest rates remained high, people’s purchasing power weakened, government spending remained problematic, companies Q2-2015 earnings reports were not too good, and manufacturing contracted.

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The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has a wide range of economic and social consequences. For example, the Indonesian economy is likely to contract this year (for the first time since 1998), while millions of Indonesians have lost their jobs over the past three months, and the majority of the country’s enterprises have seen their sales plunge.

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On 5 May 2020 Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS), a non-departmental government agency, released the first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data of Indonesia for the year 2020. These data were highly anticipated as policymakers, analysts, and stakeholders are particularly interested in finding out to what extent damage has been done to the Indonesian economy by the self-imposed restrictions.

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The economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 crisis are becoming increasingly clear and frightening. All the self-imposed restrictions on business and social behavior, taken by governments across the world, may protect people’s health to a significant extent, but the policy measures also have devastating economic and social consequences as economic activity nosedives, and businesses collapse. This results in unprecedented mass layoffs as well as growing poverty.

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In mid-April 2020 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its latest ‘World Economic Outlook’ report. It is in fact not a complete report. Considering the global economy has changed dramatically over the past months, the IMF’s previous update of the World Economic Outlook (released in January 2020) simply had no validity anymore, and therefore the IMF released one new chapter in mid-April 2020 (with the full report set to follow in May 2020).

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The number of confirmed novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections and fatalities have been growing steadily across Indonesia in recent weeks, especially in the capital city of Jakarta where around half of the country's total COVID-19 cases originate from. And the alarming matter is that this could very well be the beginning of the real storm.

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As expected, Indonesia’s full-year 2019 economic growth came in well below the central government’s 5.3 percent year-on-year (y/y) growth target. Based on the data that were released by Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS) in early February 2020, the Indonesian economy expanded at a pace of 5.02 percent (y/y) in 2019.

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What marked the year 2019 for Indonesia was national politics. Although in these present times each year feels like a ‘political year’ for Indonesia – as the country’s local elections are spread out across years (and in 2020 it will be the turn of voters in various parts of the Archipelago to elect nine governors, 224 regents and 37 mayors) – the year 2019 was in fact a particularly ‘huge political year’ for Indonesia because of the (general) presidential and legislative elections that were held on 17 April 2019.

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Given a variety of recent events, Indonesia has seemingly entered a liminal phase in its development trajectory, suggesting that its economic vulnerability will be tested in new ways. The present circumstances should be understood as a particular test for the ability of policy initiatives to temper the effects of perturbing exogenous factors and demand shocks to the overall economy.

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In early May 2019 Indonesia’s statistics agency (in Indonesian: Badan Pusat Statistik, or BPS) announced that the nation’s economic growth pace was recorded at 5.07 percent year-on-year (y/y) in the first quarter of 2019.

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Indonesia’s stock market continues to struggle in attempts to find a bottom, as recent declines have been propelled by lower-than-expected GDP figures. For the first quarter, annualized growth of rates of 5.07 percent indicated a slight miss relative to the consensus estimates for the period (5.18 percent). Primary weaknesses were seen in export markets, where slowing demand for key commodities (such as coal and palm oil) indicated contraction for the first time since 2016.

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