Republic of Indonesia

Wealth and National Well-Being

Country Comparisons:
2010: see chart

World Factbook: "Indonesia, a vast polyglot nation, has made significant economic advances under the administration of President YUDHOYONO, but faces challenges stemming from the global financial crisis and world economic downturn. Indonesia's debt-to-GDP ratio in recent years has declined steadily because of increasingly robust GDP growth and sound fiscal stewardship. The government has introduced significant reforms in the financial sector, including in the areas of tax and customs, the use of Treasury bills, and capital market supervision. Indonesia's investment law, passed in March 2007, seeks to address some of the concerns of foreign and domestic investors."

Public debt
2010: 26.4% of GDP

Budget
2011: $119.5 billion, 89.9% of expenditures ($132.0 billion). 16.8% of GDP

External debt
Dec 31: 2010: $196.1 billion, 1.6 times revenues

Unemployment rate
2010: 7.1%
2009: 7.7%
2008: 8.4%
2007: 9.1%

Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP2005: 3%

People

Living in an urban area:
2010: 44%

Population
July 2011: 245.613 million
July 2009: 240.3 million. Growth rate: 1.136% (ranks 117th)
July 2008: 237.5 million
July 2007 234.69 million

Density for 2005: 132 persons per square kilometer.

Ethnicities
Javanese 45 percent, Sundanese 14 percent, Madurese 7.5 percent, coastal Malays 7.5 percent, other 26 percent

Religions
Muslim 88 percent, Protestant 5 percent, Roman Catholic 3 percent, Hindu 2 percent, Buddhist 1 percent, other 1 percent (1998). Hinduism is prominent on the island of Bali.Buddhism was prevalent before the arrival of Islam. It became adhered to mostly by Indonesia's Chinese. When General Suharto acquired power in 1965 everybody was required to have a religion, or they would be considered Communist, and Communists were being exterminated. So many Chinese made a show of adopting Christianity.

Geography

Six thousand inhabited islands strung along the equator in Southeast Asia, extending across land and water 5,120 kilometers east to west and 1,760 kilometers north to south. Hot and humid. Capital: Jakarta.

Government

Republic, constitutional democracy, president and vice president elected for five-year terms. Bicameral leglislature: an upper house and a House of Representatives.

Recent History

August 17, 1945: independence declared.

December 27, 1949: independence recognized by the former rulers, the Netherlands.

Apr 2008: Chinese are feeling better about being citizens of Indonesia at the same time that they are identifying themselves more closely with mainland China and embracing Chinese culture. Chinese are starring on television, and there are Chinese in politics. It has been ten years since the last anti-Chinese riots, but fear among them has not completely dissipated.

July 19, 2011: Ray Suarez on the News Hour describes resentment between common people and those "born with silver spoons in their mouths." Suarez: "Protests against corruption are almost a daily occurrence in Jakarta. Everyone we spoke to said it's the cost of running for office that's the root of it all. Winners have to pay off the people who paid to get them elected."

August 25, 2011: A lesbian couple were married by an Islamic cleric by one of them masquerading as a man. They live in the only province that is allowed to implement Sharia law: Aceh (the northwest tip of Sumatra). The couple has been forced to have their marriage annulled and to sign an agreement to separate. A local police chief told them that Islam holds that they must be beheaded and burned for what they had done. In 2009 the provincial parliament passed Islamic laws authorizing the stoning to death of adulterers and the caning of homosexuals, but the governor has refused to sign it.

November 6, 2011: A ten-month-old girl has died in a hospital because, her parents say, they were unable to pay for treatment in advance. Indonesia's health ministry is now urging all hospitals to treat poor patients in an emergency, even if they cannot afford the treatment.

SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/