APD | Indonesia registers five-year high growth at 5.17 percent in 2018

By APD writer Aditya Nugraha

JAKARTA, Feb. 6 (APD) - Indonesia posted a five-year high economic growth at 5.17 percent last year on the back of robust consumption, investment, exports and government spending, a senior official said here on Wednesday.

Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) growth in 2018 was higher than the figures in the previous four years that stood at 5.07 percent in 2017, 5.03 percent at 2016, 4.88 percent 2015 and 5.01 percent in 2014, Head of Indonesia’s Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) Suhariyanto said.

Head of Indonesia’s Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) Suhariyanto

“Amid the challenging situation in global economy, 5.17 percent GDP growth is a remarkable achievement,” Suhariyanto told a press conference in his office.

Growth in 2018 was highly supported by impressive growths throughout the year in public consumption at 5.08 percent, investment at 6.01 percent, exports at 4.33 percent and government spending at 4.56 percent, he added.

In term of per capital GDP, Suhariyanto said Indonesia’s per capita income last year has expanded to 56 million rupiah (some US$ 3,927).

The 2018 GDP growth figure, however, failed to cope with 5.4 percent targeted in the nation’s state budget for the year.

Speaking in different occasion later in the day, Indonesia Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution said government would boost up exports in complying with growth target set at 5.3 percent this year.

“We would focus the efforts to improve procedures and logistics mechanism to support exports,” he said, adding that paying more attention to bolster national industry sector was also planned to expand growth this year.

Through all of those plans, the senior minister was optimistic that the nation would gain better growth this year.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)