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Jakarta – The liquidation of Bank Dagang Bali (BDB) and Bank Asiatic, caused in part by a number of lending irregularities, point to the fact that the painful and costly efforts to rest

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The move by Bank Indonesia (BI) to close two small banks last week could trigger nervous depositors to shift their funds from smaller to larger banks, experts sa

Jakarta – The economy grew at a snappy 4.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, driven mainly by strong consumer spending, according to Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin Abdulla

Brad Howarth – The newest nation is struggling to its feet, but little will happen without foreign investment.

Jakarta – Approved foreign direct investment in Indonesia fell 66 percent in the January-February period to US$805.4 million from $2.4 billion a year earlier, Bisnis Indonesia reports.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Though now defunct, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) remains prominent in the current two-month changeover period to a new way of managing debt res

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – The man behind the first efforts to privatize Indonesia's state-owned enterprises, and a staunch critic of the slow pace of the program, has been brought back int

As long-term readers of this column will have realised, Pierpont is unfashionable. He is white, Anglo-Saxon, Anglican, heterosexual, married and monarchist.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – Banking reform in the country is still far from complete despite the closure of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), according to a new survey.

Jakarta – The central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), has predicted that the country's economy will, in the first quarter of the year, grow by 4.2 percent to 4.7 percent on the back of low i

David Fullbrook, Jakarta – Unnoticed by most, a quiet revolution took place in Indonesia in 1999. Its consequences were plunging air fares and dozens of new airlines.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – Experts warned the central bank against seeking an instant solution to the slow growth in bank loans to the corporate sector, as aggressive lending without pr

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that the government had succeeded in retaining market confidence three months after the expiration of the

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – After being considered a pariah nation for years by power investors, Indonesia has started to regain investor confidence, largely due to the successful resolu

Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – President Megawati Sukarnoputri herself closed the book on the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency last Friday, thanking IBRA officials for their work.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – The collapse of the rupiah in 1998 left Indonesian telecommunication companies barely able to pay their dollar-denominated debts, let alone fund new investment.

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Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – The consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.02 percent in February from the previous month as the rice harvest and a stronger rupiah resulted in lower prices for fo

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government would increase security at all vital projects and assets across the countr

Robert Go, Jakarta – The Indonesian public received a huge shock yesterday when restructuring agency Ibra closed its books for good and handed over a bill for the economic crisis that b

Jakarta – The Indonesian government plans to sell its controlling stake in 19 state firms this year as part of its continuing privatisation programme, an official said Thursday.

Jakarta – Publicly-listed retailer PT Hero Supermarket said on Friday its net profit had plunged by 93 percent last year, due to the cost of repositioning its business activities amid t

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – Investors handed a vote of confidence to Indonesia's banking sector on Friday, taking minority stakes in four leading banks off the government's hands for $184 m

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Despite the World Bank's recent official criticism of counter-trade policies, last week Indonesian Trade and Industry Minister Rini M Soewandi promised that Jakar

The impact of the financial crisis which devastated the economy is still being felt by taxpayers.

Jakarta – Indonesia's exports in 2003 rose by 6.76 percent from a year earlier, partly because of a pick up in global demand and a high international oil price, according to local analy

Melbourne coffee roaster Wells Trenfield is the second-last person in a global coffee chain.

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Bill Guerin, Jakarta – A blueprint just released by the central Bank Indonesia (BI) spells out in some detail how banking-sector reforms will be implemented over the next 10 years.

Jakarta – Plans to provide Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency officials with legal immunity once it is closed have been fiercely criticized, as it violates the basic principle of equa

Jakarta – The amount of bank credits extended in 2004 will not exceed credits disbursements by banks in Indonesia in 2003, analysts have predicted.

John McBeth, Jakarta – PT Freeport Indonesia has cut its 2004 sales forecasts by nearly one-third after a second landslide in three months forced it to reconfigure the slopes of its gia

Leony Aurora, Jakarta – The country's commercial banks are expected to see slower growth in time deposits and savings this year due to continuing declines in interest rates and other fa

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Bill Guerin.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Jakarta plans to sell small stakes in three state-owned mining companies this year as part of efforts to meet its privatization target of Rp5 trillion (US$590 mil

Jakarta – Indonesian Finance Minister Boediono said Indonesia's economic growth would persist if the next election was run well and the political situation remained stable.

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Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – Inflation rose by 0.94 percent in December from the previous month, bringing the total inflation in 2003 to 5.06 percent, the lowest year-on-year rate in four

Surabaya – PT Telkom Managing Director Kristiono said here Friday the structure of telephone rates in Indonesia, especially those for fixed phones, were not attractive to investors.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – It has been six years since the banking sector started its restructuring efforts.

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – The government expects investment in oil and gas, as well as power sectors, to improve next year on the back of attractive oil and gas resources and the liber

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) has so far handed over Rp 26.1 trillion (about US$3.1 billion) to the state coffers from its assets sale progr

Jakarta – Indonesia's economic growth rate in 2004 will increase to between 4.2 and 4.4 per cent despite the possibility of heightened tensions at home during the general and presidenti

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – The country's economic growth is projected to remain at a moderate level of around 4 percent next year as uncertainty during the seven-month voting and campai

Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund has concluded its high-profile role in designing the country's economic reform program over six years with the announcement late last week of i

Shawn Donnan and Taufan Hidayat – From the perspective of Hansen Kurniawan's cookie shop in Jakarta's Pasar Minggu market, the International Monetary Fund's performance in Indonesia is

Robert Go, Nusa Dua – Something unexpected happened while Mr Iin Arifin Tahyan was speaking about the need for Indonesia to get more energy-sector investments during a high-profile conf