A sense of stability post election
The Indonesian Election Committee announced on March 20, 2024, that the President and Vice President-elect from the 2024 General Election were Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka. After this announcement, there is a process in the Constitutional Court that will decide whether the presidential election as well as election of the House of Representatives were approved legally.
Very different from the previous general elections, both in 2014 as well as 2019, the situation remained calm. There were not many showdowns such as in the previous two general elections. This is the situation likely because of the wide margin of victory between the winner and the contenders. The winner was supported by a majority of the voters, so if there had been showdowns from the contenders, larger groups would likely have challenged them.
With the sense of stability that has arisen post election, the Indonesian business community can now move quickly with any business plans for expansion or new investment. There is no hiccup standing in the way of business people in realizing their plans. At the same time, the Indonesian banking system can also move quickly to expand its loan books.
In the meantime, the Central Board of Statistics in Indonesia released its balance of trade report for the month of February 2024. The trade balance registered another surplus, albeit significantly smaller than that of January: $867 million compared to $1,999.6 million in January. The total trade surplus for the first two months of 2024 stands at $2,866.6 million, 65.2% lower than the $8,230 million achieved in the same period of 2023. Exports in February were $19,307.2 million while imports were $18,440.2 million. Cumulative exports in Jan-Feb 2024 reached $39,801.3 million while cumulative imports for the same period were $36,934.7 million
The Central Board of Statistics also reported that the Consumer Price Index for the month of February 2024 resulted in inflation of 0.37%. With that monthly inflation, Y/Y inflation reached 2.75%, a level within the target corridor administered by the Central Bank. Against that background, Bank Indonesia kept the benchmark rate constant at 6.00% at its the policy meeting held on March 19-20, 2024.
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