- Economy: Foreign Exchange Reserves Drop to USD 136.2B in April
Bank Indonesia (BI) announced that Indonesia’s foreign exchange reserves dropped from USD 140.4B in March to USD 136.2B in Apr 24. BI attributed the decline to the government’s payment of foreign debts. Efforts to stabilize the rupiah amid the increasingly uncertain global financial markets also led to a drop in foreign exchange. The current foreign exchange reserves position is equivalent to paying 6.1 months of imports. It is equivalent to 6 months of imports and government foreign debt payments. (Jakarta Globe)
What we think: The rupiah weakened by 2.6% from IDR 15,845/USD to 16,260/USD at the end of Apr 24, due to the global weakning of currencies against USD. But it reached the psychological limit for the rupiah stability. Rupiah had strengthened to IDR 16,045, following the BI intervention while BoJ also did some intervention to support the JPY.
- GOTO divested logistics business worth IDR 14.7B
GoTo Gojek Tokopedia (GOTO) has completed the divestment of 100% of its ownership shares in Paket Anak Bangsa (PAB) or GoTo Logistics on May 7, 2024. GOTO has transferred 2.35M shares owned by the company in the PAB to buyers with a total sales price of IDR 14.7B in cash. As a result, GOTO no longer controls PAB and its subsidiaries, namely Swift Shipment Solutions and Swift Logistics Solutions. This transaction has no impact on GoSend, a consumer-to-consumer delivery service in the Gojek application, which is part of the On-Demand Services business segment. (Investor.id)
What we think: After the previous divestment of Tokopedia, the company reviewed GOTO’s logistics business, which includes various delivery and fulfilment businesses that support Tokopedia. This is in line with GOTO’s target to focus on on-demand services and financial technology.