President Underlines Improvement of Confidence in Indonesia`s economy

Tangerang, Banten, MINA – President Joko Widodo has underlined improvement of confidence in Indonesia`s economy as three main rating companies have upgraded the country`s sovereign bond ratings to investment grade.

“The improvement of confidence should be utilized,” Antara News quoted Joko Widodo as saying here on Wednesday.

S&P Global Ratings, Moody`s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have a positive outlook on their assessments of the nation`s debt.

Based on the World Bank`s latest report, Indonesia ranked 72nd out of 190 countries in the 2018 Ease of Doing Business.

This means Indonesia rose by 19 positions from 2017 when Indonesia was ranked 91st

Indonesia`s nominal gross domestic product was at Rp 13,558 trillion, or US$1 trillion in the 2017 exchange rate. This has placed Indonesia in a group of countries with economies above US$1 trillion, like Australia, South Korea and India.

“Indonesia`s economy is in good condition,” the president said.

Based on data of The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Indonesia`s economic growth would still mainly be driven by domestic consumption and investment. Until the third quarter of 2017, investment in Indonesia amounted to Rp 513.2 trillion, constituting 75.6 percent of the government`s target of Rp 678.8 trillion.

In addition, the government has proposed a growth target at 5.4 (yoy), while Bank Indonesia offered the growth range of 5.1 to 5.5 percent.

An economist of DBS Bank Gundy Cahyadi earlier remarked that a trend of rising commodity prices, which is believed to attract investment and boost household consumption, will increase economic growth in 2018 to 5.3 percent year-on-year (yoy).

If commodities remain at current levels, the investment growth and household consumption will increase, Cahyadi said.

In addition, the realization of infrastructure development will affect the economy in 2018.

In 2017, infrastructure development attracted investment that boosted Indonesia`s economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 by 5.19 percent (yoy). (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)