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By: Mahendra Siregar and Hari S. Noegroho The plantations sector performed well above expectations during 2007, and is expected to continue to boom through this year, according to a senior official of the Department of Agriculture.
One major plantations firm, Singapore-listed Indofood Agri Resources Ltd (IndoAgri), reported a 59% increase in sales to Rp6.5 trillion ($715 million) in 2007 from Rp4.09 trillion in 2006.
The subsidiary of food giant PT Indofood Sukses Makmur attributed the jump to higher sales and a “leapfrogging” increase in returns for crude palm oil.
Ahmad Mangga Barani, Director General of Plantation Crops at the Agriculture Ministry, said higher output was expected this year in a range of crops.
Rubber, cocoa and coffee output was expected to increase as farmers expanded plantation areas to take advantage of strong prices and as good weather raised prospects.
Strong commodity prices were responsible for less positive news, with inflation inching higher in February to an annualized 7.40%, up from 7.36% in January, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Monday (3/3/08).
Officials and analysts said they expected inflation to start to fall this month as the major rice harvest progressed.
Exports in January came in above expectations, 33.2% up from a year earlier, while imports grew 43.9% in January providing a trade surplus of $3.48 billion, also above expectations.
The World Bank said emerging markets were largely insulated from rising global credit costs, buoyed by the commodities boom and the growth of domestic funding sources, Bloomberg reported.
Developing nations have cut the amount of money they raise in US and European currencies to “a residual part of their funding needs'' as local bond markets grow, said Doris Herrera-Pol, the World Bank's global head of capital markets.
On the domestic front, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the Indonesian government has decided to let an arbitration court settle its dispute with Newmont Mining Corp. as there is too much at stake in the issue, Antara reported.
"The government could terminate the contract rather than going to an arbitration tribunal, but the Newmont case involves the interests of big companies from overseas," Yusgiantoro said. "Therefore, we have to look at it from many aspects," he said.
Indicators: | | December | January | January 08/
January 07 | Trade surplus for 2007 | | Total exports | $10.86 billion | $11.08 billion | 33.19% | $39.06 billion | | Non-oil & gas exports | $8.36 billion | $8.87 billion | 30.41% |
| | | January (y-o-y) | January (m-o-m) | February (y-o-y) | February (m-o-m) | | Inflation | 7.36% | 1.77% | 7.4% | 0.65% | | | Full year 2005 | Full year 2006 | Full year 2007 |
| | GDP growth | 5.60% | 5.5% | 6.3% |
| | Tourist arrivals | December | January | Growth/loss (m-o-m) | Growth/loss(yoy) | |
| 431,001 | 437,600 | 1.5% | 13.24% | Source: Central Statistics Agency News source: www.ekon.go.id
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Serba-serbi masyarakat Indonesia di wilayah kerja KJRI Los Angeles
