Indonesia Corona Virus Update #7       April 13, 2020

  • Number of reported cases:  3842 (as of April 13)   327 Deaths  286 Recoveries 

Indonesia reported 330 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours on Saturday, the second highest rise in a day. “The disease continues to spread due to a lack of discipline among the people to observe physical distancing, to wear face masks and to wash their hands more often,” the government’s Covid-19 Task Force spokesman Achmad Yurianto said in a video conference in Jakarta.  The country of more than 272 million people has only tested 20,000 so far.

  • Rupiah: $15,840      Jakarta Stock Exchange Index: 4623

Indonesia Raises Significant Capital on Historic Terms: Indonesia has acted quickly to secure capital to help finance its COVID-19 relief measures. The government has raised $4.3 billion from selling dollar-denominated “pandemic bonds” in three trances last week, including the first 50-year dollar-denominated bonds ever issued by an Asian nation, to help finance a fiscal stimulus to counter the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Indonesian economy and financial system. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and Standard Chartered placed the offering, “This is the largest issuance of dollar-denominated bonds by the Indonesian government in history,” Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said in a press conference on Tuesday.  “We are the first country in Asia to issue a sovereign bond since the Covid-19 pandemic [accelerated] in February. No countries in Asia has entered the global bond market due to high volatility and huge turmoil,” Sri Mulyani said.

Indonesia has also arranged significant swap agreements as a “second line of defense” in the form of a bilateral swap agreement with China, worth $30 billion; Japan, $22.76 billion; Singapore, $7 billion; and South Korea, $10 billion.  It also has a $60 billion repurchase facility with the Federal Reserve Bank of NY.

  • Foreign Exchange Reserves: $120.9 billion    Although $9 billion has been withdrawn from Indonesia’s capital market since the COVID-19 outbreak, the government believes it has significant reserves to finance imports.  BI Governor Perry Warjiyo sounded optimistic that the recent bump up in the rupiah boded well for the future, predicting 15,000 would be the rate at year-end.
  • EID Exodus Moved: A new holiday may created later in the year to encourage Indonesians not to travel to celebrate this year’s May celebration of the end of the fasting month.
  • Siloam Hospital Group:  Indonesia’s largest private hospital group is constructing 39 prefab hospitals across the archipelago to prepare for more COVID-19 patients.
  • Advanced Purchases:  Importers of Indonesian commodities such as coffee are making advanced purchases in anticipation of port log jams.
  • Food Imports Restricted:  Indonesia’s food trading partners such as Vietnam, India, and Thailand have put in export quotas on buffalo meat, rice, and garlic, leading to price spikes and shortages.
  • Ventilators: With only 8,900 ventilators divided between 1,827 hospitals Indonesia will run short as cases mount.  State weapons manufacturer Pindad and electronics maker LEN Industries are reverse engineering imported ventilators in hopes of producing a viable prototype that can be mass produced.

(sources: Indonesia news media, Bali Discovery Update , Reformasi Weekly)