However, some market observers are hopeful that the sector can maintain some growth ahead once a new president pushes for infrastructure updates. Both candidates have pledged to spend big on roads, ports and railways to help retailers access remote regions of the country.
“We see consumer companies in Indonesia as another way of playing the infrastructure cycle indirectly,” Mark Gordon-James, a senior investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management, said in the article. “Any pro-infrastructure policy will in turn make the economy more competitive and those benefits will trickle down to the consumer.”
Consumer sectors are among the second and third largest segments in Indonesia-related ETFs, following financials. EIDO has a 17.9% weight toward consumer discretionary and 12.2% in consumer staples. IDX allocates consumer staples 15.7% and consumer discretionary 14.7%.
Additionally, broad emerging market consumer-focused ETFs include a small weight toward Indonesian stocks. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Consumer Discretionary ETF (NYSEArca: EMDI) has a 5.1% weight in Indonesia. The EGShares Emerging Markets Consumer ETF (NYSEArca: ECON) shows a 8.7% tilt toward Indonesia. The WisdomTree Emerging Markets Consumer Growth Fund (NasdaqGS: EMCG) has 4.3% in the southeast Asia market.
For more information on Indonesia, visit our Indonesia category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.