DECEMBERASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK9On Nov 21, Indonesia unveiled its investment plan to utilize the $20 billion pledged by global lenders, spearheaded by the United States and Japan, to expedite the decarbonization of its power sector. The country also urged for prompt disbursement of the funds. Indonesia, through the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 250 million metric tonnes for its on-grid power sector by 2030. This is a significant decrease from the estimated business-as-usual emissions of over 350 million.The Comprehensive Investment and Policy Plan (CIPP) has been officially announced after a public consultation period, which followed the release of the draft earlier this month. Indonesia, a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, aims to boost its renewable energy share in power generation to 44 percent by 2030, up from approximately 12 percent in 2022."We have to move quickly because 2030 is less than seven years away. The partnership must be enhanced and accelerated to do the priority projects, including to immediately realize the financing commitments," Erick Thohir, ad-interim chief minister for investment affairs, said at the launch.The CIPP stated that in order to reach the goals, a total of $97.3 billion billion in investments would be necessary, with $66.9 billion allocated to 400 projects that must commence by 2030 at the latest. According to Michael Kleine, the US charge d'affaires in Jakarta, the JETP funding is anticipated to kickstart energy transition investment and draw in additional financing. NEWSROOMINDONESIA SHOWCASES EXPENDITURE PLAN FOR DECARBONIZATIONThe major state-owned banks of China were observed trading yuan for U.S. dollars. According to two sources who spoke to Reuters on Nov 21, there has been a significant amount of buying of dollars in the onshore swap market and subsequently selling those dollars in spot currency markets this week. Over the past week, the yuan has increased by 2 percent, reaching levels of approximately 7.13 to the dollar, the highest it has been in nearly 4 months. The big state banks have also been selling dollars for yuan throughout the week, according to sources.Both sources requested to remain anonymous as they were not permitted to speak to the media about the issue. It is commonly suspected that state banks intervene in the currency market on behalf of the authorities. However, the timing of their actions is unusual, as they typically sell dollars when the yuan is under pressure to depreciate.The recent actions were taken during a period of widespread dollar depreciation. The dollar index, which assesses the currency's worth in comparison to major trading partners, has slid over 3 percent in November due to U.S.According to some market participants, state banks could be attempting to accelerate the appreciation of the yuan and encourage exporters to convert a greater portion of their foreign exchange receipts into yuan. The Chinese currency has depreciated by over 3 percent against the dollar so far this year. State banks selling dollars led to the onshore spot yuan reaching 7.1296 per dollar momentarily, which was stronger than its daily official guidance for the first time in four months. CHINESE BANKS EXCHANGING DOLLAR FOR YUAN ON SWAP MARKETS
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