Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati delivered the remarks at a press conference on the state budget (APBN), which was followed online from Bandung on Thursday.
“In the midst of this bad situation, the Indonesian economy in the second quarter showed a very impressive performance. Many countries in the second quarter experienced downward corrections," she said.
Economic growth in the second quarter showed a slowing trend in most countries, and even the United States recorded contractions in two consecutive quarters this year, the minister noted.
For example, the economy of Singapore grew 4.8 percent, Italy 4.6 percent compared to 6.2 percent in the first quarter, Europe 4.0 percent compared to 5.4 percent in the first quarter, while China recorded a growth of just 0.4 percent from 4.8 percent in the first quarter.
The slowdown was triggered by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, a decline in investment in the US, the zero COVID policy, and a property crisis in China.
"Indonesia's economic growth in the second quarter strengthened and was supported by consumption and export performance," Indrawati said.
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Public consumption, which grew 5.5 percent year on year, mainly due to rapidly increasing activity during the Ramadan month and Eid al-Fitr, supported national economic growth in the second quarter.
Exports, which grew 19.7 percent, in line with the demand for national superior commodities and manufactured products, also supported the economy.
Investment also grew positively by 3.1 percent, but declined from 4.1 percent in the first quarter due to high prices of input goods.
At the same time, government consumption contracted 5.2 percent on account of a decline in spending for handling the pandemic due to the accelerated recovery.
Imports also supported the economy, growing 12.3 percent due to the expansion of the manufacturing and trade sectors that continued to stabilize, in line with the improvement in production capacity and domestic demand.
Meanwhile, Indonesia recorded real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.1 percent, or higher than the pre-COVID-19 level in 2019, which shows that the weakening has been replaced with a strong economic recovery.
Indonesia's position is better than several countries, such as Singapore (6.8 percent), Italy (minus 0.2 percent), Europe (1.4 percent), Mexico (minus 1.7 percent), and the US (4.2 percent).
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Translator: Astrid Faidlatul H, Resinta S
Editor: Suharto
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