Highlights
Big spenders: Brazilian tourists take NYC by storm
Hong Kong IPOs: back with a whimper
Mexican growth: don't panic yet
Zenith Bank makes its own way
Chart of the Week: woes of Malaysia’s exporters

Tag: Indonesia consumers

[video] Indonesia: Big tobacco’s last stand

May 9, 2013 11:34am by beyondbrics
Share
Share this on

Around two-thirds of adult men smoke in Indonesia, one of the world’s largest and least regulated tobacco markets. The government in Jakarta has tried to introduce legislation to restrict advertising but the proposals have been watered down after industry lobbying. The FT’s Ben Bland talks to smokers, lobbyists and health campaigners about why smoking is still so popular.

Tags: , , , Posted in Asia, Indonesia |

[video] How mobile commerce is changing Indonesia

Feb 25, 2013 8:30am by beyondbrics
Share
Share this on

Only 40 per cent of Indonesians have a bank account, but over 90 per cent have a mobile phone. For both entrepreneurs and multinationals, that represents a big opportunity. The FT’s Ben Bland visits rural West Java to see how mobile commerce is spreading.

Tags: , , , , Posted in Asia, Indonesia |

Consumers keep Indonesia ticking

Nov 5, 2012 9:55am by Josh Noble
Share
Share this on

Indonesia’s economy grew by an enviable 6.2 per cent in the third quarter, in line with market expectations. With benchmark rates at a record low and exports responsible for a far smaller portion of the economy than its neighbours, Indonesia appears to have cemented its place as an economy with a high resistance to global headwinds.

Though some had been expecting a little more, most analysts still seem confident that Indonesia will continue to chug along quite nicely. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Indonesia |

Indonesia tobacco: still some puff left

Oct 4, 2012 12:51pm by Ben Bland
Share
Share this on

Promoting its recent World Tobacco Asia conference in Jakarta, UK-based organiser Quartz Business Media was unashamed, noting on its website that “Indonesia is a recognized tobacco-friendly market with no smoking bans or other restrictions and regulations in contrast to neighbouring Asean countries.”

With 61m smokers – that’s 67 per cent of all men and 5 per cent of women – and an average 20-pack costing just Rp12,700 ($1.32), Indonesia is the world’s fourth biggest cigarette market, in addition to being one of the least regulated. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , , Posted in Asia, Indonesia |

Indonesia credit cards: going solo

Sep 7, 2012 12:23pm by Ben Bland
Share
Share this on

After restrictions on foreign banks, foreign mining companies and foreign fruit and vegetables, the latest protectionist push in Indonesia is focused on credit card payment systems.

Bank Indonesia, the central bank, and a number of major state-owned banks are trying to breathe new life into an old proposal to develop a national credit card payment system to break the dominance of MasterCard and Visa, as has been done in China with UnionPay. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , Posted in Asia, Indonesia |

BB: time to register

Dear beyondbrics readers,

After more than three years of fully open access, we are taking the step of asking our readers to register on FT.com to read our articles. Beyondbrics will still be free but we'd like to know a bit more about you, our readers. Other FT blogs (including Alphaville) already do the same thing. Registration is active on beyondbrics from May 6.

Many of you are already registered on FT.com, or are subscribers - in which case, if you are logged in to the site you will not notice any difference. Just carry on as before.

For those of you not yet registered, it's a simple process which only takes a few moments.

Reading beyondbrics articles will NOT deduct from your free monthly quota of stories on FT.com.

Many thanks

Stefan Wagstyl, emerging markets editor

Global equities macromap

Number of the day

-0.2% Fall in Polish retail sales in April, rather worse than 1.1 per cent growth expected.

beyondbrics

The emerging markets hub

About this blog Headlines email Blog guide
News and comment from more than 40 emerging economies, headed by Brazil, Russia, India and China.



'Like' our beyondbrics Facebook page, where we showcase a top story of the day
Sign up for our news headlines and markets snaphot service. We have two emails per day - London and New York headlines (sent at approx 6am and 12pm GMT).

Pretty much everything you need to know about beyondbrics is in our About this site page. But briefly:

To comment, please register for free with FT.com and read our policy on submitting comments.

There is an overall beyondbrics RSS feed, as well as feeds for all our countries, tags and authors. Learn more in our full RSS guide.

All posts are published in UK time.

Get in touch with us - your comments, advice and even complaints. Find out how to contact the team.

See the full list of FT blogs.

BB shortcuts

Regulars Series Archive
Chart of the week
Behind the numbers

Corporate watch
A regular in-depth look at a significant emerging market-based company

The Weekender
Catch up with the week in emerging markets
Hello 2013
Guest posts on the outlook for the year ahead

2012 review
Quiz, charts, most read and more

BB review
An occasional series reviewing books and arts from around the beyondbrics world

Brics at 10
A decade of growth
12 for 2012
Guest writer predictions
2011 review
The year in numbers
The Diaspora Digest
EM diasporas, seen through their community media (Oct-Nov 2011)
Sick brics (Sep 2011)
Brics and mortar (Aug 2011)
Beyondbrics on the beach (Jul-Aug 2011)
China bubble? (June 2011)
Post-election Nigeria (June 2011)
Hey bric spender (Aug 2010)

Emerging markets data

Archive

« AprMay 2013
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031