"In the fourth quarter, there would be acceleration in spending. In the last week`s meeting at the finance ministry we saw the spending trend reaching more than 95 percent by the end of this year," the minister said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said she hopes the countrys economic growth would be higher in the last quarter of this year driven by government spending.

"In the fourth quarter, there would be acceleration in spending. In the last weeks meeting at the finance ministry we saw the spending trend reaching more than 95 percent by the end of this year," the minister said after a National Leaders Meeting at the Taxation Directorate General here on Monday afternoon.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), there was a contraction of 2.97 percent in the government consumption in the third quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, exports shrank 6 percent and imports fell 3.87 percent, the BPS record said.

Amid the protracted global crisis, Sri Mulyani hoped that the export and import contraction in the last quarter of this year would not be as deep as in the the third quarter of this year.

She estimated export and import growth would be close to zero percent.

She said Indonesia is potential to grow to become a middle income country, which is relatively healthy in term of growth, state budget and economic improvement.

She predicted the investment sector which grew less than 5 percent at present could still be increased driven by a number of positive factors including confidence of investors, expansion by number of companies and growing stock market as a source of fund for expansion.

"We may see various types of investment would emerge with the business incentives . Foreign and domestic investments began to rise with strong commitment of the government to improving the economy," she said.

BPS recorded that Indonesias economy in the third quarter of 2016 grew 5.02 percent that cumulatively, the countrys economy until the third quarter of this year reached 5.04 percent.

BPS chief Suhariyanto said here on Monday the highest growth year-on-year was recorded in the information and communication sector that grew 9.2 percent, followed by the financial and insurance that grew 8.83 percent and the transport and warehousing sector 8.2 percent.

"The mining sector also grew positively though only 0.13 percent on an increase in the production of metal ore like gold and copper," she said. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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