Indonesia

Standing as a critical pillar of the Indonesian economy, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the country’s largest employers and a significant contributor to GDP growth, although they have been hit by Indonesia’s economic slowdown, with many struggling to access credit and export markets, in addition to feeling the pain of a...

Indonesia’s central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), shifted its strategy in 2015, moving away from policies that had defended the floundering rupiah against further depreciation after ongoing devaluation between 2013 and 2015. In January 2016 the bank surprised stakeholders with a decision to cut interest rates, making further cuts in February and...

The Indonesian government has set a target tax-to-GDP ratio of 16% by 2019, up from the current average of 12-13%. While ambitious, the goal is not unattainable given that neighbouring countries Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand have tax-to-GDP ratios averaging of 13% and 17%. However, the target can only be reached by widening and stabilising...

In his state of the union speech, President Joko Widodo spent more than 20 minutes of his time reiterating his policy of welcoming FDI to Indonesia. In the last six months there have been 12 economic packages presented by the government offering more opportunities for foreign investment, simplifying and deregulating approval processes and...

Indonesia’s seventh president, Joko Widodo, pledged during his campaign to increase economic growth and welfare in society. In fact, President Widodo has promised to boost the economy by specifically targeting economic growth of more than 7% by 2019. In order to achieve these goals, he has introduced a number of changes to economic policy...

Indonesians have embraced technology enthusiastically, taking advantage of rising incomes to buy smartphones that give them access to a host of social networking platforms and other services.