06/01/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | JAN 6, 2026

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Indonesia’s trade surplus smaller than forecast

Bank of Japan chief vows to keep raising interest rates TOKYO: Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said yesterday the central bank will continue to raise interest rates if economic and price developments move in line with its forecasts. Japan’s economy sustained a moderate recovery last year despite the hit to corporate profits from higher US tariffs, Ueda said in a speech delivered to the country’s banking sector lobby. “Wages and prices are highly likely to rise together moderately,” Ueda said, adding that adjusting the degree of monetary support will help the economy achieve sustained growth. The BOJ raised its policy rate to a 30-year high of 0.75% from 0.5% last month, taking another landmark step in ending decades of huge monetary support and near-zero borrowing costs. Despite the move, Japan’s real borrowing costs remain deeply negative with consumer inflation exceeding the BOJ’s 2% target for nearly four years. Markets are focusing on the BOJ’s quarterly outlook report due at its policy meeting on January 22-23, for clues on how the board views the inflationary impact from recent yen falls. The yen’s weakness has pushed up import costs and broader inflation, prompting some board members to call for further, steady rate hikes. The dollar rose 0.2% to ¥157.08 yesterday after reaching ¥157.255 for the first time since Dec 22. Market expectations of further BOJ rate hikes have pushed up yields with those on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) briefly hitting a 27-year high of 2.125% on Monday. Speaking before the same banking lobby, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Japan was at a critical stage of shifting to a growth-driven economy, from one mired in deflation. – Reuters MiniMax expected HONG KONG: MiniMax Group is expected to price its Hong Kong IPO at the top of a marketing range and raise US$538 million, three people with knowledge of the deal said, in the latest public market debut by a Chinese AI startup amid an investor frenzy. MiniMax launched bookbuilding of the IPO on December 31 at a price range of HK$151 to HK$165 (RM78.97-RM86.30) apiece. At the higher end, the IPO would value MiniMax at about US$6.5 billion. Its books have been oversubscribed multiple times, said the sources, who declined to be named as the information was confidential. Founded in early 2022 by former SenseTime executive Yan Junjie, MiniMax develops multimodal AI models, such as MiniMax M1, Hailuo-02, Speech-02 and Music-01, which can process text, audio, images, video and music. MiniMax is scheduled to price the offering today. The shares will start trading on Jan 9. The company did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. Bloomberg first reported yesterday on the planned IPO price. Six Chinese companies are scheduled to debut in Hong Kong this week. Zhipu AI, chipmaker Iluvatar CoreX and surgical robotics maker Shenzhen Edge Medical will start trading on Jan 8, while MiniMax and two others will debut on Jan 9. MiniMax’s rival Zhipu AI fixed its offer price at HK$116.20 per share to raise HK$4.3 billion, according to its Dec 30 prospectus. – Reuters to price HK IPO at top of range

o December inflation at 2.92%, highest since April 2024

signed a free trade deal with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, as it seeks to strengthen markets outside the United States. Jakarta has also set a target to sign a US tariff deal by the end of this month. Meanwhile, annual inflation picked up to 2.92% in December, above analysts’ median forecast of 2.73%, on higher prices of gold and some food items, as well as the impact of floods and landslides that hit distribution channels in northern Sumatra island. December’s inflation rate was the highest since April 2024, though it remained within the central bank’s 1.5% to 3.5% target range. Core inflation, which excludes government controlled prices and volatile food prices, was at 2.38% in December, versus 2.40% expected in the poll. Faisal said inflation was expected to remain within Bank Indonesia’s target, allowing the central bank to maintain an accommodative monetary policy. – Reuters

exports boosted earlier in the year as manufacturers rushed shipments to get ahead of US tariffs introduced in August. However, exports have been easing in recent months and fell 6.6% annually in November to reach US$22.52 billion, compared with a 0.53% drop forecast by analysts polled by Reuters. Shipments fell mainly due to the lower export value of top commodities such as coal, palm oil, nickel metals and copper, Statistics Indonesia said. Imports in November were worth US$19.86 billion, up 0.46% from a year earlier, compared with a 3.2% increase forecast in the poll. “The trade surplus is expected to persist but gradually narrow as import growth is seen to outpace exports, in line with the government’s increasingly pro-growth policy stance,” Permata Bank economist Faisal Rachman said. Indonesia has finalised free trade negotiations with the European Union and

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s trade surplus widened in November to US$2.66 billion, official data showed yesterday, but was less than expectations after exports of commodities such as coal, nickel and copper dropped, while inflation in December climbed to a 20-month high. A Reuters poll had projected a US$3.06 billion surplus in November after the country recorded a surplus of US$2.39 billion in October. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy maintained an expanding trade surplus for the January to November 2025 period, with

A worker stands on a container at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta. – REUTERSPIC

India’s palm oil imports fall to eight-month low MUM B AI: India’s palm oil imports fell to an eight-month low in December, weighed down by weaker winter demand and as refiners increased purchases of rival oils such as soyoil and sunflower oil, according to five dealers. Lower palm oil imports by India, the world’s largest buyer of vegetable oils, could lift inventories in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia, weighing on benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures, while lending support to US soyoil futures . more than doubled to a 17-month high of 350,000 tonnes, according to dealer estimates. India’s total edible oil imports in December rose 19% from a month earlier to a three month high of 1.37 million tonnes due to higher imports of soyoil and sunflower oil, the estimates indicated. The import numbers exclude duty-free shipments that arrived via land borders from Nepal, the dealers said. the winter months and improved availability of domestic edible oils such as groundnut oil, soyoil and cottonseed oil, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at edible oil trader GGN Research at Rajkot, Gujarat. India’s palm oil imports typically moderate during the winter months, as the tropical oil solidifies at lower temperatures, limiting its use in northern parts of the country.

India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, and imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine. Palm oil imports are likely to rise in January, while soyoil and sunflower oil imports may moderate, as palm oil is now trading at a discount to the two rival oils, said Sandeep Bajoria, CEO of vegetable oil brokerage Sunvin Group. – Reuters

India imported an average of about 632,000 tonnes of palm oil each month during the marketing year that ended in October 2025, said the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, which is set to publish its December import data by mid-January. Palm oil demand has remained weak due to

Palm oil imports fell 20% month-on-month in December to 507,000 metric tonnes, the lowest since April 2025, according to estimates from dealers. Meanwhile, soyoil imports surged 37% to 508,000 tonnes, and sunflower oil imports