BI Forecasts Moderate Economic Growth In 2015

Jakarta (Antara Bali)- Indonesia's central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), has forecast a moderate economic growth at around 4.9 percent for Indonesia in 2015.

BI Governor Agus Martowardojo here on Thursday expressed optimism that the domestic economy would grow better in the second semester compared to the previous semester, which witnessed a slowdown.

"Thus, the economic growth is expected to be between 4.7 and 5.1 percent, or around 4.9 percent," the minister stated.

The government is currently facing a huge global economic challenge. The global economic growth is forecast at 3.3 percent, lower than the realized growth of 3.4 percent in 2014.

It indicates that the global economic development is not encouraging enough, he noted.

"Despite some improvement in advanced countries such as the United States, we need to focus on China, which had enjoyed a growth of over 10 percent in the past 20 years, and has dropped to 7.4 percent. Its economy is projected to grow at 6.8 percent in 2015. China is a major economy, so when it experiences a decline in economic growth, there are some impacts," he remarked.

Other developing countries such as Brazil, Turkey, India, and South Africa, which have so far developed encouragingly, have also been affected by the global economic slowdown and the sentiment of the interest rate surge by the Fed, he pointed out.

The minister explained that the domestic economic slowdown in the first semester was due to the slow absorption of the state budget.

The central bank will always respond by issuing prudent and consistent policies in order to control inflation, he added.

"We will continue to remind businesses to apply prudent principles, with minimal hedging and minimal liquidity management. Particularly, we will always coordinate with the government," the minister stated. (WDY)