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Text your say: Worries about a looming economic crisis
Stock market: A worker looks at an electronic board showing share trading at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta recently
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Stock market: A worker looks at an electronic board showing share trading at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta recently. Companies with high exposures to foreign loans and import financing are bracing for tough times ahead as the rupiah collapsed to below its worst-case scenario level.(JP/Jerry Adiguna) (JP/Jerry Adiguna)
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span class="inline inline-center">Stock market: A worker looks at an electronic board showing share trading at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta recently. Companies with high exposures to foreign loans and import financing are bracing for tough times ahead as the rupiah collapsed to below its worst-case scenario level.(JP/Jerry Adiguna)
Your comments on weakening rupiah and soaring prices of basic commodities and on the government's readiness for the impending economic meltdown:
I don't have dollars in my savings and not many rupiah. And now I know they are shrinking in value. Nothing changes in daily life but for sure we have to cross some items off our shopping list. Hoping all will be alright in time.
Eddy Arjuna Zainy
On the major slide of the rupiah: Neil and Ferdi were locked up in July of 2014 when the rupiah was sitting right below 11,000 and 13 months later the rupiah has fallen all the way to 14,000. This is not a coincidence. The manner in which the press, police and courts handled the JIS case made Indonesia a laughing stock to the rest of the world. It is no wonder that foreign investment confidence has plummeted in the past year. While Neil and Ferdi are now free the case is not over. Five innocent cleaners are still in jail.
Bima
As the world becomes flat, an event in any superpower country could affect the whole globe. I still remember when Indonesia was hit by an economic and financial crisis in 1998. I was a university student at that time the situation was tough but the burden was tolerable.
If the second financial crisis comes back, as a family breadwinner certainly I need to improve my financial adaptability skill. Reducing consumption might be the best option.
The bad news is that the prices of raw material continue soaring while workers' purchasing power continues declining. If companies stop their production, then the threats of downsizing and labor layoffs are looming.
I Gede Edy Purwaka
Instead of simplifying the policies and procedures, it is better for the government to avoid confusing state institutions and the public. The government should seek feedback from the public secretly. The public is seemingly not happy with the way the President is running his administration because everything is messed up. The government should take policies benefitting the majority, if not all, of the people and the government and the people should go together to handle the economic meltdown.
Damodhar Reddy
With so many new regulations and demands we hear about everyday, and mostly pointing in several different directions, it seems to be quite clear that the policies are out of sync and unimplementable. Family affairs, nationalism and protectionism clung up together with religious rhetoric, that's the spiral we live within.
TS
To think outside the box, one must first have some kind of idea as to where the box is to begin with. Even when they trip over it they fail to see it.
Simaging
Simply this government lacks a leader who knows the priorities to be given in boosting the economic development and orchestrate the whole government.
The first priority is living quality and economy. Only then can development follow. Not the other way around. Simply to show there is a lack of knowledge and wisdom.
Nationalism is out of context too.
CD
To 'think out of the box', one must be a lateral thinker, or right brained. To be right brained, one should ideally be left-handed. Any left-handers in the cabinet? Or in Indonesia for that matter.
CA
Upset foreigners are now waiting until the Indonesian economy starts to disintegrate. Then, they may provide help, under their conditions. So much for Indonesian crappy nationalism.
Silvio Bari
Ministers' actions do not reflect a harmonious orchestra under a strong conductor. It's the conductor who must get the orchestra to play harmoniously, but with continued interference from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), clashes with the police and KPK, general lawlessness, high corruption rates and the continued nationalistic rhetoric, the constant blaming of external sources for Indonesia's woes and lastly the wishy washy policies that are here one day and gone the next do not instill a feeling of security but rather one of chaos looming on the horizon.
SD
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Topic of the day
Relaxing of budget oversight
Law enforcers have promised to comply with President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's call not to criminalize regional heads and government officials handling development projects in an effort to speed up capital expenditure. What do you think of the President's move? Will law enforcers be forced to turn a blind eye to abuses of power?
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