A few weeks ago a group of suicide bombers set off bombs in two hotels, killing seven people. Today it was announced that both luxury hotels are back in business with 70% occupancy rates.
The attacks were carried out by Muslim extremists.
According to the AFP, “Police believe the bombings are likely the work of a radical splinter faction of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional militant network led by Malaysian-born terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top.
“Noordin, 44, lead a suicide truck bombing at the Marriott in 2003, as well as the 2004 suicide bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta and 2005 suicide attacks on restaurants in Bali.”
My trading service, Crisis Trader, makes a living off of situations that unduly knock down a stock index or equity despite fundamental value. It says something about either the value of the Indonesian market or the resilience of its people, that despite these horrific bombings, the stock market in Jakarta has been one of the best performing of the year.
And its economy will take more than a couple of terrorists to destroy it.
Bloomberg reports, “Indonesia’s $433 billion economy, the largest in Southeast Asia, grew 4.4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, compared with a 6.2 percent contraction for Malaysia and Thailand’s 7.1 percent slump.”
The country also re-elected its anti-extremist, free market, reformist president, Susilo Bambang, by a landslide. The president is spending money to fix Indonesia’s poor roads, ports and power plants.
The vice president and former central banker is out stumping for his boss, saying, “Indonesia has passed the worst handed down by the global economic crisis and expects 'respectable' economic growth of 4 per cent this year and 5 per cent next year. The economy grew 6.1 per cent last year.” And it is aiming for a 7% GDP growth rate in 2014, which should cut unemployment down from the current 8.1% to 5%.
Even the head of the World Bank called Indonesia a “winner.”
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