0 Bali’s economy strengthens despite global crisis, survey

As tourism and retail businesses have prospered since early 2012, Bali’s economy is predicted to continue strengthening until the end of this year, a survey reveals. The Bali and Nusa Tenggara office of Bank Indonesia (BI) conducted the survey on consumer confidence in September. According to the survey, consumer confidence has reached an optimistic level scoring 120.83, a significant increase on the 108.17 in the same period last year. “This is the first time that the consumer confidence index has been at an optimistic level across all the island’s regencies and mayoralty,” the survey recorded.

Buleleng regency in north Bali stood strong with a consumer confidence level of 133.33, the highest among the regencies. Buleleng’s flourishing economy is heavily supported by the agricultural sector. The abundant harvests of several major commodities, such as cloves, coffee and cacao, as well as the rocketing prices of these commodities on both the domestic and international markets, have spurred the regency’s economic activities. In addition, previously Kintamani coffee was priced relatively low on the international coffee market in New York. However, after assisting the farmers with quality improvement, a mediated partnership between the farmers and exporters was established for value chain improvement.

Kintamani coffee now holds a premium price internationally, on the New York market receiving around an extra US$2 per kilogram, or about Rp 54,000 ($5.61) per kilogram of processed coffee, up from Rp 35,000 per kilogram. This rise in price has not only been achieved for Kintamani coffee, but also for coffee from Flores and Papua. Bangli Agriculture, Plantation and Forestry Agency head I Wayan Sukartana acknowledged that Arabica coffee had huge potential for development in Bangli’s 30,000-hectare Kintamani coffee area. “The air of optimism has been felt since May 2012,” the survey stated. Curiously, Badung, the richest regency, only had a consumer confidence score of 100. An official from BI said that the survey indicated that the majority of consumers were confident about the island’s economic development in 2012.

“They [the consumers] were not affected by the global financial crisis, which has been especially strong in Europe — a major export market for Bali’s industries,” the official said. Consumers in Bali believed that job opportunities and income generating activities had been increasing in the last six months. Spending was higher, but income and revenue had also soared, the survey indicator found.

source : bali daily