According to Firdaus, the economy in 2016 grew, but it was not significant and was not caused by acceleration.
"The governments economic policy packages have impact only on a big expectation in short term, but it turned out to remain unchanged," Firdaus said here on Thursday.
He added that from the expenditure aspect, the growth was still boosted by household consumption, which grew by 5.01 percent.
In the meantime, investment growth slowed from 5.07 percent in 2015 to 4.48 percent in 2016. The governments consumption underwent a negative growth of 0-0.15 percent.
The export-import component recorded a surplus, but it was not supported by an increase in exports, rather it was because imports dropped sharply.
Goods and Services exports registered negative growth of -2.74 percent and -2.27 percent, respectively.
"The economic growth from the expenditure aspect was supported by household consumption. This means that other components were not involved in providing stimulus. Hence, even if the government did not do anything, the economy will remain to grow (at that level) as it has been boosted by the peoples (consumption)," he stated.
On Monday, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution asserted that Indonesias economic growth of 5.02 percent in 2016 slightly fell short of the governments expectation.
"It slightly fell (short of the target). After all, if we look at the factors that have influenced it, we must admit that our revenues were not too good and so we cut budget spending," he remarked.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) earlier in the day stated that the economy expanded 4.94 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, bringing the national growth to 5.02 percent for all of 2016.
The 2016 economic growth represented a 0.14 percent increase compared to 2015, when the economy expanded 4.94 percent.
Darmin noted that the 2016 economy grew by more than 5 percent, as the measurement of declining consumption was still good.
"The measurement of the decline is still okay. Hence, our economy still grew by more than 5 percent," he noted.
When asked to comment on the economic growth forecast for 2017, he affirmed that the government was still busy controlling the inflation rate.
BPS announced the January 2017 inflation rate to have reached 0.97 percent, fueled by an increase in administered prices.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
