The electricity, gas and clean water sector is projected to undergo the biggest improvement in business conditions with its index expected to reach 107.81Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The economic conditions of businesses and consumers had improved in the fourth quarter of 2010 marked by the increase of the Business Tendency Index (ITB) and Consumers` Tendency Index (ITK), Rusman Heriawan said here on Monday.
"The ITB in the fourth quarter of 2010 was recorded at 106.63 meaning business conditions improved from the previous quarter although the rate of business players` optimism declined from the third quarter," the chief of the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
Rusman said the business conditions had improved due to increasing business revenues, production capacity and working hours as a result of increasing domestic demand in connection with the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
He said all economic sectors recorded business improvement except agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and fisheries whose business had dropped with their ITB record at 96.09.
Rusman predicted the ITB in the first quarter of 2011 would reach 106.56 due to improving business conditions as a result of an increase in input goods order, current sales price and orders from home and abroad.
"The electricity, gas and clean water sector is projected to undergo the biggest improvement in business conditions with its index expected to reach 107.81," he said.
The ITK in the greater Jakarta (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) reached 101.09 rising from that of the third quarter but consumers` confidence index declined from 110.67 before.
"The consumers` economic conditions are improving driven by increasing household income but the rate of consumers` confidence dropped due to the impact of inflation staple foods," he said.
The ITK of the same area meanwhile is predicted to reach 106.49 in the first quarter of 2011 with the index on durable goods purchases declining to 84.16 because respondents have no plan to buy durable goods.
The value of ITB and ITK is between 0 and 200 with reading below 100 to show business or consumers` economic conditions in the current quarter to drop compared to that of the previous period.
Reading between 100 and 200 shows that conditions in the current quarter do not change from that of the previous period and reading above 100 shows conditions are better than that of the previous quarter.
The ITB is an indicator of current economic development made based upon data collected from surveys on business tendency carried out by the BPS in cooperation with Bank Indonesia.
The index is a composite index of business perceptions on business and economic conditions in general in the current quarter and a forecast for the next quarter with samples taken from 1,800 big and medium businesses and company leaders as respondents.
The ITK meanwhile is an indicator of current economic development made by the BPS through surveys on consumers` tendency.
This index is a composite index of perceptions of households on consumers` economic conditions and consumers` attitude towards the economic situation in the current quarter and a forecast for the next quarter with samples taken from 1,250 households.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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