Jakarta, 12 Ramadan 1437/18 June 2016 (MINA) – The Indonesian government expects the country’s economy to accelerate at a faster pace in the second quarter as the development budget spending and consumption rise.
Indonesian Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said on Friday that he estimated a 5.1-percent growth in the three months, up from 4.92 percent in the previous quarter.
“My projection is that it (the economy) is better in the second quarter. It can grow 5.1 percent,” Xinhua quoted Minister Brodjonegoro as saying.
Rising spending of the government development budget in the final quarter last year contributed to the economic expansion in the second quarter, he said.
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The Indonesian central bank had aggressively cut its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to 6.75 percent in the first quarter. The lender trimmed the basic policy by a quarter percentages on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve refrained from rising interest rate.
Earlier this month, the government and parliament revised downward this year’s economic growth target to 5.1 percent from the initial projection of 5.3 percent after the World Bank lowered this year’s global economic-growth target to 2.4 percent from its initial target of 2.9 percent in January.
President Joko Widodo has struggled to lure more foreign investment as the exports have been subdued in recent years amid falling global prices of commodities, the main contributor to Indonesia’s exports.
Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, thermal coal, and the world’s third biggest exporter of rubber and cocoa, as well as home to the world’s second biggest copper mine. (T/R07/R01)
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