Indonesia's central bank, Bank Indonesia, decided today (15/08) to keep its benchmark interest rate (BI rate) at 6.50 percent. In recent days, heavy speculation emerged about whether Bank Indonesia would raise the BI rate for the third consecutive time in three months as the country is plagued by higher inflation (8.61 percent year-on-year in July 2013) and a weakening rupiah. Reluctance to raise the interest rate again seems to indicate that the Bank gives priority to economic growth, which has slid to a three-year low at 5.81 percent in Q2-2013.

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Pembangunan Perumahan (better known as PP) is a government-controlled construction and investment company in Indonesia. The company's lines of businesses consist of construction services in building and infrastructure, property, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), as well as investment. PP was the second-largest company in terms of largest net income in Semester I-2013. Being a state-controlled entity, it benefits from the government's increased focus on infrastructure development. 

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Head of the Finance Ministry's fiscal agency Bambang Brodjonegoro said that the Indonesian government is preparing tax incentives to spur foreign investments. The new regulation will extend the previous expired one and also provides new incentives that make investing in Indonesia more attractive. One possible change concerns the minimum value of investments. Currently, investments between IDR 1 trillion - 20 trillion receive the same benefits. However, this may be revised in such a way that the bigger the investment, the better the incentives.

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Various high government officials, including president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Finance minister Agus Martowardojo and National Development Planning minister Armida Alisjahbana stated that Indonesia's economy is estimated to grow between 6.3 and 6.8 percent in 2014. Its main economic pillars of support are thought to be (foreign and domestic) investments, domestic consumption, and government expenditure. Poverty is targeted to be reduced to ten percent of the population.

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