‘They are trying to intimidate us’: Indonesia’s Prabowo remains defiant in the face of an MSCI double downgrade
Source: Fortune ·
MSCI's proposal to reclassify Indonesia as a "standalone" market triggered a stock rout and a presidential outburst.
From the source
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto declared that Indonesia will not be “intimidated” by MSCI’s proposal to downgrade the Southeast Asian country’s market to “standalone” status, alongside Argentina, Nigeria, and Ukraine. “Our country continues to face all sorts of disturbances, including the MSCI. They are trying to intimidate us,” Prabowo said during an address to his cabinet. “I simply want to tell MSCI: the Indonesian nation fears no one and will never back down.” “We have the strength, the courage and we are willing to make sacrifices, and we refuse to surrender,” he added. On Oct. 15, MSCI said it was considering downgrading Indonesia to “standalone” status, which would exclude the Southeast Asian country from its major global and regional indexes. The index provider cited “continued suspected coordinated trading behavior and lack of evidence of meaningful enforcement.” As many investors use MSCI’s indexes as the basis for their funds, a downgrade could lead to billions of…