M

arch 4, p1

Foreign investors seem undeterred by the steep fall in the rupiah over the past week, as indicated by the continued increase in the flow of foreign funds into the country'€™s capital markets.

Net buying by foreign investors in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) has topped Rp 918.2 billion (US$70.6 million) in the past several days, taking the total foreign net buying this year to Rp 11.4 trillion.

Your comments:

As long as the return on high interest rates on investments is more than the depreciation of the rupiah, foreign funds will keep coming in.

These investments hardly take into consideration political conditions or the official nod for corruption to be committed with impunity. It is just about making money.

Henry Manoe

Everyone was saying that when Joko Widodo was elected president, the rupiah would strengthen to circa Rp 9,500'€“Rp 10,000 against the US dollar; the Jakarta stock exchange would experience a few months of rallying; investments would flow in from confident investors; exports would rise; Indonesia would continue to grow at 6.5 percent GDP and the current account deficit would shrink further and we would achieve food sufficiency and Indonesia would soon be on the way to becoming the sixth largest economy in the world.

However, the fuel price increased; the rice price increased; the current account deficit continues unabated; unemployment, especially in the mining sector, is in the hundreds of thousands; mining equipment rental is almost non-existent as mines close down; corruption continues and with the KPK in deep coma it will only get worse.

We are not even number 15 in the world economy now, so how can we hit number six by 2018? How can we host the Asian Games in 2018 when the Jakarta MRT project has been delayed, flooding continues and the highway projects with the city have been delayed?

Malam