Finance Minister Predicts Better Performance In Last Quarter

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Finance Minister  Sri Mulyani said she hopes the country's economic growth would be higher in the last quarter of this year driven by government spending.

"In the fourth quarter, there would be acceleration in spending. In the last week's meeting at the finance ministry we saw  the spending trend reaching more than 95 percent by the end of this year," the minister said after a National Leaders' Meeting  at the Taxation Directorate General here on Monday afternoon.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), there was a contraction of 2.97 percent in the  government consumption in the third quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, exports shrank 6 percent  and imports fell 3.87 percent, the BPS record said.

Amid the protracted global crisis, Sri Mulyani hoped that the export and import contraction in the last quarter of this year  would not be as deep as in the the third quarter of this year.

She estimated export and import growth would be close to zero percent.

She said Indonesia is potential to grow to become a middle income country, which is relatively healthy in term of growth, state budget  and economic improvement.

She predicted the investment sector which grew less than 5 percent at present  could still be increased driven by a number of positive factors including confidence of investors, expansion by number of companies  and growing stock market as a source of fund for expansion.

"We may see various types of investment would emerge with the business incentives . Foreign  and domestic investments began to rise with strong commitment of the government to improving the economy," she said.

BPS recorded that Indonesia's economy in the third quarter of 2016  grew 5.02 percent that cumulatively, the country's economy until the third quarter of this year reached 5.04 percent.

BPS chief Suhariyanto said here on Monday the highest growth year-on-year was recorded in the information and communication sector that grew 9.2 percent, followed by the financial and insurance  that grew 8.83 percent  and the transport  and warehousing sector 8.2 percent.

"The mining  sector also grew positively though only 0.13 percent  on an increase in the production of metal ore like gold and copper," she said. (WDY)