Tuesday 3 January 2017

Indonesia. How Much Is That Doggie In The Window

Is a 2009 rock hit for Patti Page. Now if this had happened in Malaysia, I bet from PKR to the DBKL man, everyone would want Najib Razak's HEAD.

But, in Malaysia, Najib Razak has liberalised the service sector, and even when Malaysia gets bad foreign publicity, we take it as fair comment, and do not discriminate by asking rating houses and research firms : How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

That's how an efficient market economy works, there are ups and downs. But in Indonesia, they have taken things a bit too personal.

Bloomberg has the story. Read below :

Indonesia’s government said it terminated all business partnerships with JPMorgan Chase & Co. after the U.S. bank downgraded its assessment of Southeast Asia’s largest economy following Donald Trump’s election win.

The finance ministry will stop using JPMorgan as a primary dealer and as an underwriter of its sovereign bonds, Robert Pakpahan, the ministry’s director-general for budget financing and risk management told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday. He said a November research report issued by the bank was not "accurate or credible."

JPMorgan downgraded Indonesia by two notches to underweight from overweight in a Nov. 13 report as a “tactical response” to the Trump election win. The bank also downgraded Brazil, while noting that both countries may provide a "better buying opportunity” later.