"I remain optimistic."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Chief economics minister Hatta Rajasa said he is optimistic the country`s economic condition will improve in 2013 to follow the global trend.
Hatta predicted that the global economy would begin to recover in 2013 , saying the world would make progress in efforts to sort out the present financial crisis.
"I remain optimistic. Others could be pessimistic but we must work hard," he said here on Friday.
He said the country`s economic growth target of 6.8 - 7.2 percent is still within reach given the good performance in the first quarter of this year.
The country`s economy grew 6.3 percent in the first three months of this year when Europe was still struggling to wriggle itself out from the financial woes, he pointed out.
He said increase in domestic consumption would be important to ward off the impact of the European crisis and offset a decline in exports.
"We need to expand the scope of our domestic market as we have not fully optimized its potential ," he added.
Strengthening domestic economy does not necessarily mean banning imports but competitiveness would be improved , and the people would be encouraged to use local products, he said .
He also hopes that growing investment would have greater contribution to the country`s economic growth. (Uu.AS/H-ASG/S012)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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