Indonesian GDP growth slows to 6.3%
2012-05-08 12:18:31
Indonesia's economic growth slowed in the first quarter of this year, the Central Statistics Agency reported Monday, reined in by sluggish exports.
Gross domestic product expanded 6.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, slower than the 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, it said.
But GDP rose 1.4 percent from a quarter earlier, compared with a 1.3 percent drop then.
"The slowdown was caused by slowing global export demand," said Aviliani, an economist at Jakarta's Institute for Development of Economics and Finance who goes by only one name.
The statistics agency said exports, which account for around 26 percent of GDP, grew 7.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, slowing from 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter.
It said private consumption, the backbone of the economy, remained resilient as it grew 4.9 percent on year, unchanged from the previous quarter.
Consumption is set to remain strong, with the statistics agency saying unemployment fell to 6.32 percent in February, compared with 6.8 percent a year earlier.
The economy grew by 6.5 percent in 2011, and the government has set the same growth target this year.