Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has predicted Indonesia`s first-quarter growth would be at 5.2 percent or higher than the realization in the same period last year which was at 5.01 percent.

"First-quarter growth will be at 5.2 percent," she said at a press conference on realization of the state budget in the first quarter here on Monday.

She said improvement of economic performance in the first quarter was seen in the improvement of realization of tax collection in the period that grew 16.21 percent outside tax amnesty.

Until March tax receipts reached Rp262.4 trillion or 16.2 percent of the target of the national budget at Rp1,618.1 trillion.

In the same period last year realization of tax receipts were recorded at Rp237.9 trillion.

"The tax receipts showed encouraging improvement. This means that our economic activities have started to pick up," she said.

Minister Mulyani was optimistic the growth would be higher in the next period driven by Eid event in the second quarter, Asian Games in the third and IMF-World Bank meeting in the fourth quarter.

"We have momentum to keep optimistic as from pure domestic side the momentum is all positive," she said.

For the entire year, the minister predicted the growth would be between 5.22 and 5.41 percent.

On a separate occasion, Bank Indonesia has projected the growth in the first quarter at 5.11 percent in line with improving economic condition from early in the year.

The government in the 2018 national budget has set the growth assumption at 5.4 percent.

Reported by Satyagraha
(H-YH)
(T.SYS/B/KR-BSR/S012)

Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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