Indonesia’s central bank cut its main interest rate for the first time in 11 months, prioritizing a boost to flagging economic growth over concerns looser policy could trigger further currency weakness.
Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo and his board lowered the rate by 25 basis points to 7.25 percent, the bank announced yesterday.
Thirteen of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the decision, while the remainder predicted an extended pause.
The authority also cut the rate it pays lenders on overnight deposits, known as the Fasbi, by 25 basis points to 5.25 percent.
The rate move came on a day when several people were killed in explosions and gunfire in the biggest attack in the capital since at least 2009, hurting sentiment and adding to financial market turmoil.
The central bank has faced political pressure to ease policy and revive an economy growing at the slowest pace since 2009, while grappling with a rupiah selloff. Contained inflation provides scope for policymakers to cut, though they also have to consider fallout from last week’s sharp drops in China’s currency and stocks.
The decision “is warranted given inflation is turning more favorable, along with more stable external conditions this week,” Singapore-based Nomura Holdings Inc economist Euben Paracuelles said ahead of the announcement.
The rupiah has fallen 0.7 percent this year after a 10 percent depreciation last year. The benchmark Jakarta Composite Index of Shares closed 0.5 lower.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last