The Indonesian economy grew in line with economists’ forecasts in the third quarter as Indonesian President Joko Widodo seeks to spur the nation onto a higher growth path.
GDP increased 5.02 percent last quarter from a year earlier, compared with a revised 5.19 percent in the second quarter, the Indonesian Bureau of Statistics said in Jakarta yesterday.
The median estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for growth of 5.08 percent. GDP rose 3.2 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, compared with a median estimate of 3.25 percent in a Bloomberg survey.
Southeast Asia’s biggest economy has been undershooting the 7 percent growth target set by Widodo when he took office two years ago, mainly due to low commodity prices and weaker global demand.
Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is known, is seeking billions of US dollars to help fund an ambitious infrastructure agenda that includes building roads, railways and seaports.
He last week said that the government has set its sights on growth of more than 6 percent in 2018 and a 10 percent boost in investment.
Also helping to support the growth outlook are six interest rate cuts by Bank Indonesia this year to spur spending as inflation remains inside the 3 to 5 percent target band.
Growth is likely to remain “stuck around the 5 percent mark for the next few years,” London-based Capital Economics economist Oliver Jones said.
“While we don’t expect growth to weaken any further, with fiscal and monetary policy unlikely to provide much more support, a significant revival also looks unlikely,” he said in an e-mail.
Given its aversion to market volatility, Bank Indonesia is unlikely to ease policy the rest of the year as this month and next months’ meetings take place before the US Federal Reserve meeting, said Weiwen Ng, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd in Singapore.
A potential bright spot in the economy is the recent rise in commodity prices, he said.
Government spending declined 3 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, while household consumption climbed 5 percent. Investment rose 4.1 percent, exports contracted 6 percent and imports dropped 3.9 percent in the period.
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