"At international forums, we can say with pride that our economic growth, though it is not very high, is good," Darmin said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesias Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution stated here on Wednesday that the countrys economic growth is sound and hence is worth boasting.

"At international forums, we can say with pride that our economic growth, though it is not very high, is good," he noted at a national symposium.

Nasution pointed out that the improvement in growth could be visible by evaluating the indicators of inflation, poverty rate, gap, and unemployment rate.

He said the rate of inflation had improved as compared to four or five years ago, while poverty had consistently been elevated in the past decade.

"The gap has been improving again in the past two years after declining in the past 10 years due to the 1998 crisis that led to the utilization of natural resources, such as mining and plantation, worsening the gini ratio," he revealed.

He said the highest ratio in 2013 was recorded at 0.413, and last year, it had improved to 0.394.

He expressed confidence that economic growth in the past 10 years would be sustained since the government has formulated just economic policies to streamline those in effect so far.

"As a note, President Jokowi initiated steps for the welfare of the people by reducing subsidy and using the funds for social assistance and infrastructure development," he noted.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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