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Indonesia: Indonesia’s Q2 GDP grows 5.18% year on year, stronger than expected, as spending surges
Indonesia: Indonesia’s Q2 GDP grows 5.18% year on year, stronger than expected, as spending surges
Friday, 5 August 2016 – Indonesia’s second-quarter economic growth beat analysts’ expectations amid President Joko Widodo’sefforts to spur an economy struggling in the wake of a slowdown in China and low commodity prices.
Gross domestic product increased 5.18 per cent from a year earlier, compared with a revised 4.91 per cent in the first three months, the statistics bureau said in Jakarta on Friday (Aug 5). That exceeded the 5 per cent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 24 economists.
Widodo, known as Jokowi, oversaw a 36 per cent surge in government spending from the previous quarter as he seeks to lift growth from the slowest level since 2009. The president has embarked on an ambitious infrastructure programme and launched a tax amnesty aimed at luring back billions of dollars of undeclared income back to Indonesia. The central bank has cut its benchmark rate by a percentage point this year in an attempt to revive lending. Read More?