The fact that the Indonesian economy grew 5.02 percent in the third quarter of 2019 is good amidst the current global situation. The year-end economic growth target of 5.05 percent is not low, but it may give sufficient momentum.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Vice Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara has projected Indonesia’s economy to register a slower paced growth in 2019 as compared to the previous year owing to the impact of the global economic downturn.

Indonesia’s economy is expected to grow at 5.05 percent in 2019 than 5.17 percent last year, he remarked during the Mandiri Market Outlook 2020 in Jakarta on Wednesday (Dec 4, 2019).

In just the third quarter of 2019, the national economy grew 5.02 percent year-on-year (yoy).

The 5.02-percent growth is an optimistic target as the economies of peer nations, including India and China, experienced deeper economic slowdown, he pointed out.

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The outlook for economic growth has been revised down by multilateral financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF had last slashed the projection for global economic growth to three percent, from 3.2 percent for this year.

"The fact that the Indonesian economy grew 5.02 percent in the third quarter of 2019 is good amidst the current global situation. The year-end economic growth target of 5.05 percent is not low, but it may offer sufficient momentum, he stated.

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He believed that national growth this year will be fueled by manageable purchasing power of the public. One of its parameters is the lower-than-projected inflation rate this year. Until November 2019, the country's annual inflation had reached three percent yoy.

He forecast the inflation rate to touch 3.1 percent yoy at this year-end.

The manageable purchasing power was also facilitated by the declining unemployment rate and poverty rate, he pointed out.

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Translator: Indra Arief Pribadi/Suharto
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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