Thanks for cluing me into the interesting history of Indonesian subsidies. Here's a good analysis for English readers [1]. It looks like fuel subsidies were v

Thanks for cluing me into the interesting history of Indonesian subsidies. Here's a good analysis for English readers [1]. It looks like fuel subsidies were very high 5y ago, when oil was at 2x today, and have come off significantly since. I'd argue that this is exactly the sort of price stabilization mechanism that makes oil volatility less scary it sounds on its face. The government is centralizing (and, more controversially, socializing) the financial cost of creating internal price stability. This is actually pretty common, and I'm not sure 10% of budget (at peak) is as outsized as it sounds. In the USA, this takes the form of buying and releasing oil from the strategic reserve, but also in a mountain of foreign policy (read: military) spending on maintaining stable supply lines for energy trading. [1] https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/indonesia-energy-reform-takes-back-seat-pragmatism-jokowi-oil-gas-subsidies https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/indonesia-energy-refo...