Freeport Indonesia ends labour dispute
Reuters
A labour dispute in Indonesia that has brought production at one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines to a standstill and cost the company hundreds of millions in losses may well be over.
US mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold has reached a deal with trade unions to return 8,000 striking workers to work after a three-month stoppage, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Continue reading »
Could Indonesia face Brazil-style slowdown?
It’s an emerging market with a young population of around 200m, a member of the G20 group of the world’s largest economies, and has been growing by close to 7 per cent during the recent commodities boom. Name that country.
The comparison is often made between Brazil and Indonesia, both of which fit that description – until recently. Since mid-year, they have taken dramatically different turns as the global financial crisis develops. Indonesia is looking in much better shape – for now. Continue reading »
RIM may face Indonesian court
Just when it seemed the troubled relationship between RIM, the maker of the BlackBerry, and Indonesian authorities couldn’t possibly get worse, it has.
Indonesian police are investigating whether Research in Motion executives can be held criminally negligent for injuries suffered by people trying to get hold of its newest smartphone at half price. Continue reading »
Bank Indonesia, how low can you go?
Indonesia’s inflation slowed for a third consecutive month – probably all the justification its central bank governor needs to push lending rates in the booming economy to a record low.
November inflation eased to 4.2 per cent, as markets had expected, to the slowest pace since April 2010, the statistics agency said on Thursday. Continue reading »
Jakarta: jam at Blackberry launch
Thousands of Indonesians thronged the upmarket Pacific Place mall in central Jakarta on Friday waiting for the chance to buy the new Blackberry Bold 9790 smartphone – at its global debut.
By lunchtime, in scenes resembling a rock concert, several women fainted in the crush and five ambulances were parked outside. Traffic snarled on the city’s main thoroughfare, Sudirman. Police, fearing a riot, used a megaphone to announce the sale was over. Continue reading »
Indonesia’s rich get richer, again
Another year and a few more Indonesians became billionaires. The collective wealth of the richest three Indonesians, who made their fortunes on tobacco, banking and palm oil, has jumped to $32.5bn, Forbes magazine said Thursday. Continue reading »
Indonesia: buying prime London homes
Wealthy Indonesians have been on a buying spree for private jets, Ferraris and yachts this year. The list of luxury items is set to soon include London’s prime real estate.
On Wednesday, in booming Jakarta, the London head of property developer Jones Lang Lasalle will market high-end apartments to Indonesia’s elite. Continue reading »
Indonesian GDP: 6% and counting
Consumers are buying cars and motorbikes by the million, exports have jumped 18.5 per cent and fixed capital investment are up 7 per cent from July to September. It was the fourth consecutive quarter of GDP growth above 6 per cent. Indonesia is doing well, and people have noticed.
But can the country keep it up? Continue reading »
Indonesia’s belated super-regulator
It’s been a long time coming but Indonesia’s notoriously slow-moving parliament has finally agreed to create a new, powerful oversight body to regulate the ballooning financial services sector in south-east Asia’s largest economy.
A bill establishing the Financial Services Authority will be signed on Thursday after years of delays caused by squabbling over its purview, the degree of its political independence, its leadership structure and the central bank’s reluctance to give up oversight of commercial banks. Continue reading »
Roubini: Goodbye China, hello Indonesia
If economist Nouriel Roubini was a betting man, he’d be cashing out of China and doubling down on Indonesia.
On his first trip to south-east Asia’s largest economy, Roubini argued the case for countries with growth models like Indonesia, where nearly two-thirds of GDP is domestic consumption, rather than China, at roughly one third and, as he has previously warned , “could be headed toward a hard landing.” Continue reading »
Smile Indonesia; braces are the new sign of prosperity
Dr Mirza Shan’s dental clinic in downtown Jakarta has never been fuller. The number of new patients asking for braces is so great he hired two orthodontists and three nurses to ease the workload.
It’s the latest sign of rapidly rising prosperity in Indonesia, an emerging democracy of 240m, where the number of registered orthodontists quadrupled to 160 this year, according to the Indonesian Medical Council. Continue reading »
Indonesia: fickle foreigners
Is the foreign love affair with Indonesian government bonds really over?
Foreign ownership of Indonesian state bonds earlier this month reached a record high of 36 per cent of the total issue, or more than $28bn, capping years of strong inflows. But now those holdings have slid nearly 3 percentage points in less than a week as investors pulled their money out of Jakarta.
The selling has sent the local currency, the rupiah, tumbling the most since the 2008 crisis and prompted intervention by Bank Indonesia, the central bank. That’s serious. But there are few signs that the foreigners are leaving for good.
Continue reading »
‘Invincible’ Indonesia finally succumbs
[UPDATED WITH CLOSING PRICE] Indonesia has been fairly sheltered from recent global market turmoil by its booming domestic economy and soaring investor confidence. But the external gloom finally became too much on Thursday, driving the Jakarta stock exchange down a whopping 8.9 per cent, as equities fell across the region.
“It’s like all the gains were gone in seconds,” said Lana Soelistianingsih, an economist at Samuel Sekuritas, a local brokerage. Continue reading »
Indonesia: strike cripples Freeport’s largest copper and gold mine
Reuters
Thousands of miners stopped work at Freeport’s Indonesian operations this week, crippling the flow of copper and gold from a huge mine and resulting in empty cargo ships and millions in daily lost revenue for the government.
The pay dispute involves over 8,000 (and possibly up to 12,000) workers at the huge Grasberg mine, and may drive up global copper and gold prices. An eight-day strike in July cut production by 35m lb (15,876 tonnes) of copper and 60,000 ounces of gold. Continue reading »
Indonesia: more cars, no roads
This next bit of news won’t please traffic-weary commuters in Jakarta, the grid-locked Indonesian capital, but it is still a good indicator of where the country’s car market is headed.
Daihatsu and Toyota are to invest more than $700m to increase production capacity by a combined 150,000 cars per year to keep pace with record auto sales in Asia’s third largest consumer market. Continue reading »
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