On Wednesday (05/02), Indonesia's official gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for 2013 was released. According to Statistics Indonesia, Indonesia's economy expanded 5.78 percent in 2013, thus slowing - for the third consecutive year - from the 6.2 percentage growth in 2012 and 6.5 percentage growth in 2011. All sectors of the Indonesian economy posted growth in 2013: highest was the transport and communications sector (+10.2 percent) and lowest was mining and extracting (+1.3 percent).

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On 2 February 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 an analysis of economic growth in 2013, a forecast for GDP growth in 2014, an update on floods in Jakarta, Gita Wirjawan's resignation as Trade Minister, and more.

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On 19 January 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 impact of international factors on Indonesia's financial stability, five newly listed companies, January 2014 inflation update, GDP growth forecast, widening inequality in Indonesia, and more.

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Forecasts for economic growth in Indonesia in 2014 are still optimistic. The government of Indonesia targets a 6 percent growth rate, while the country's central bank (Bank Indonesia) expects GDP growth in the range of 5.8 to 6.2 percent. Although these forecasts clearly fall short of the target set in the country's National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) - which mentions annual GDP growth of between 6.3 and 6.8 percent - the forecasts are still rather positive given the global uncertain and volatile economic context in recent years.

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On 12 January 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 implementation of Mining Law No.4/ 2009, Bank Indonesia’s interest rate policy, the expected GDP growth result of 2013, growth of retail sales, newly added company profiles, and more. 

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Chatib Basri, the Finance Minister of Indonesia, expects Indonesia's economy to expand 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. As such, total gross domestic product (GDP) growth of Southeast Asia's largest economy in 2013 will total between 5.6 to 5.7 percent in 2013. This result will imply that Indonesia's economic expansion in 2013 has slowed down for the second straight year, mainly due to global economic turmoil. In 2011 and 2012, the country's economy expanded by 6.5 percent and 6.2 percent respectively.

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Supported by legislative and presidential elections, car sales in Indonesia are expected to grow between five and ten percent to 1.30 million total vehicles in 2014. These elections are estimated to boost the domestic money flow due to increased economic activity in Southeast Asia's largest economy. Consumption goods such as cars and food & beverage products are expected to feel the impact of this development and may offset the negative impact brought on by the weak rupiah, high inflation and the high interest rate environment.

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The government of Indonesia announced on Tuesday (24/12) that increased levels of foreign direct investments will be allowed in the country’s airports, pharmaceutical industries, power plants, and toll roads. The revision of Indonesia's Negative Investment List (Daftar Negatif Investasi), the list which stipulates which sectors are closed (or partly closed) to foreign investment, is conducted in order to attract more foreign investments from abroad as a means to combat slowing economic growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

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On Sunday 22 December 2013, Indonesia Investments released its latest 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 during the last seven days on our website. Most of the topics involve economic matters such as a forecast of the performance of the Jakarta Composite Index, the government's fuel subsidy spending, crude palm oil exports, the initial public listing of Sido Muncul Herbal, and more.

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Deputy Trade Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi said that the Indonesian government is preparing two strategic steps to anticipate the negative impact of the winding down of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program. In January 2014, the Fed's bond-buying program will be reduced from USD $85 billion to USD $75 billion per month. The two strategic steps, which will enhance financial stability in Southeast Asia's largest economy, involve the curtailing of Indonesia's current account deficit and high inflation.

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It was a rough first month of the year for Indonesia. Obviously, the COVID-19 crisis persists (and there are signs to assume this crisis will persist throughout 2021) with the total number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Indonesia now having passed the one million mark.

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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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Across the world, concern over the COVID-19 pandemic grew in September 2020 as the number of new COVID-19 cases continued to rise rapidly. Worldwide, at the end of September 2020, some 34 million people have been infected with the virus, while more than one million people have died after contracting the virus.

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On 05 August 2020, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) released Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) data for the second quarter of 2020. These data, which were highly anticipated among analysts and policymakers, are crucial to comprehend how – and to what extend – the self-imposed social and business restrictions (made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic) have impacted on the Indonesian economy.

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Good news at the start of July 2020. The World Bank upgraded Indonesia’s economic status to an ‘upper-middle income country’ (from ‘lower-middle income country’) per 1 July 2020. The key consideration for the World Bank was that Indonesia’s gross national income (GNI) per capita increased from USD $3,840 in 2018 to USD $4,050 in 2019. This means that an upgrade was needed (see the table below).

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It is becoming clearer by the day that economic growth in Indonesia, in 2020, will be derailed enormously. Analysts and authoritative institutions (both international and domestic ones) have, again, cut their forecasts for Indonesia’s economic growth in Q2-2020 (decisions that obviously also have consequences for Indonesia’s full-year 2020 economic growth outlooks).

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The most recent published outlooks for global economic growth and global trade are more pessimistic than their earlier versions, with the main reason being that there is no quick solution to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. On the contrary, there is a high degree of uncertainty about when business can resume as usual. And, the closer we get to 2021, the less rosy outlooks are becoming for next year.

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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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