Analytical work on Indonesian macroeconomic and financial issues, with an overarching theme on building institutions and policies for prosperity and inclusive growth. The book begins with a 20-year economic overview by former Finance Minister Chatib Basri, with subsequent chapters covering diverse sectors of the economy as well as Indonesia’s place in the global economy.

‘Diagnosing the Indonesian Economy: Toward Inclusive and Green Growth’ discusses the critical constrains to inclusive economic growth in Indonesia. The volume includes a broad overview of Indonesia’s development since the 1960s, and features an analytic framework for the study that aims to identify the most binding constraints. The chapters analyze macroeconomic management since the Asian financial crisis; the status of Indonesia’s industrial transformation; the challenges pertaining to Indonesia’s infrastructure; the situation of human capital and employment; the record on poverty reduction; the impact and status of the decentralization effort; and the challenges attendant to the country’s environment and natural resources.

By any indicator, Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation on earth, is a development success story. Yet 20 years after a deep economic and political crisis, it is still in some respects an economy in transition. The country recovered from the 1997–98 crisis and navigated the path from authoritarian to democratic rule surprisingly quickly and smoothly. It survived the 2008–09 global financial crisis and the end of the China-driven commodity super boom in 2014 with little difficulty. It is now embarking on its fifth round of credible national elections in the democratic era. It is in the process of graduating to the upper middle-income ranks. But, as the 25 contributors to this comprehensive and compelling volume document, Indonesia also faces many daunting challenges — how to achieve faster economic growth along with more attention to environment sustainability, how to achieve more equitable development outcomes, how to develop and nurture stronger institutional foundations, and much else. “This is a timely and much-needed book. There are very few recent books on Indonesia with such a comprehensive analysis of not just mainstream economic policies, but also most importantly the key issues of human capital, inequality, social welfare, labour, food security and natural resource management. This book will not only be crucial for policy discourse but for all stakeholders who care about Indonesia making the transition not only to a high-income economy, but an inclusive one.” — Mari Pangestu, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia “The Indonesian Economy in Transition: Policy Challenges in the Jokowi Era and Beyond is one of the most important books that discusses the Indonesian economy post–Asian Financial Crisis. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand contemporary Indonesian economy.” — M. Chatib Basri, former Minister of Finance of Indonesia

Following the acquisition of its sovereignty from the Netherlands in 1949, Indonesia experienced serious economic and political problems during the 1950s and 1960s, before entering a three-decade-long period of rapid economic growth. Hard-hit by the financial crisis of the late 1990s, Indonesia undertook a wide range of economic and financial reforms. These reforms served to prepare it well for the 2007-08 global financial crisis, through which Indonesia passed relatively unscathed. Drawing on empirical research, this book presents a comprehensive empirical study on the key macroeconomic relations and monetary policy issues in Indonesia. The book analyses monetary, fiscal and exchange-rate policies, looking at their interactions and impacts on the economy. It demonstrates how important macroeconomic management for monetary and financial stability is to sustained national economic growth and development. Data from the 1970s is compared and contrasted with 1950s data to analyse macroeconomic policies and issues in an historical context. Statistical and econometric techniques are juxtaposed with general empirical results to supplement informative discussion of macroeconomic and monetary developments. This book is a useful contribution to studies on macroeconomics and international development, as well as Southeast Asian studies.

Central Bank Policy: Theory and Practice analyses various policies, theories and practices adopted by central banks, as well as the institutional arrangements underlying the principles of good governance in policy-making. It is the first book to comprehensively discuss the latest theories and practices of central bank policy.

Asian economies strengthened their monetary and currency management after the Asian financial crisis of 19971998, and came through the global financial crisis of 20072009 relatively well. Nevertheless, the recent global crisis has presented new challenges. This book develops recommendations for monetary and currency policy in Asian economies aimed at promoting macroeconomic and financial stability in an environment of global economic shocks and volatile capital flows. Monetary and Currency Policy Management in Asia draws lessons from crises and makes concrete macroeconomic policy recommendations aimed at minimizing the impacts of an economic and financial downturn, and setting the stage for an early return to sustainable growth. The focus is on short-term measures related to the cycle. The three main areas addressed are: monetary policy measures, both conventional and unconventional, to achieve both macroeconomic and financial stability; exchange rate policy and foreign exchange reserve management, including the potential for regional cooperation to stabilize currency movements; and ways to ease the constraints on policy resulting from the so-called 'impossible trinity' of fixed exchange rates, open capital accounts and independent monetary policy. This is one of the first books since the global financial crisis to specifically and comprehensively address the implications of the crisis for monetary and currency policy in emerging market economies, especially in Asia. Presenting a broad menu of policy options for financial reform and regulation, the book will be of great interest to finance experts and policymakers in the region as well as academics and researchers of financial and Asian economics as well as economic development.

Since the adoption of the inflation targeting framework by Bank Indonesia (BI), monetary policy communication has played an increasingly important role in BI’s policy toolkit. This paper assesses BI’s monetary policy communication from three perspectives: i) its transparency and clarity, ii) its ability to align market expectation and BI’s policy decisions (predictability), and iii) its impact on financial markets. In particular, we assess the impact of BI’s monetary policy practices by focusing on its monetary policy press releases and monetary policy reports. The results show that Bank Indonesia has made significant progress in the transparency of its communication as well as in the institutional framework to support this. Nonetheless, the results also suggest ways in which the impact of communication can be further improved, including by strengthening the clarity of policy messages, its consistency with the policy framework and the depth of the money market.