Govt Yet To Revise Growth Target

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - National Development Planning Minister/Head of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), Sofyan Djalil, said the government has not yet revised its economic growth target for 2016, set at 5.3 percent.

"We have not yet decided to revise it," Sofyan stated after he spoke at a seminar at the 41th Session of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He said he would first look at the APBNP 2016. "Only after that we can see whether we need to revise it or not," he said.

Earlier, Bank Indonesia (BI), the Indonesian central bank, said the Indonesian economic growth target at 5.3 percent for 2016 could still be achieved if the budget is expeditiously disbursed.

"In the first quarter, the disbursement of the government budget is still low. This should be expedited. Hopefully, in the third and fourth quarter of the year, the economy will grow better, reaching the 5.2 - 5.3 percent level. It is something that can still be achieved. A 5.6 percent level is still too  early to predict,  however," Senior Deputy Governor of BI Mirza Adityaswara said in Depok, West Java, on Saturday.

Mirza said all ministries and regional governments should expedite budget disbursement so that the growth in the second quarter is better than the first quarter when it was only 4.92 percent. (WDY)