FINANCE Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati sometimes feels she is riding on a roller coaster. In the midst of a depressed world economy, the price of oil suddenly rose to about US$70 per barrel from half of that at the start of the year. To Indonesia, this can mean a blessing but also problems.

According to this former Director of the Institute for People’s Economic Research (LPEM) at the University of Indonesia, petroleum is either a boon or a