Indonesia expects 5% GDP growth in 2004
Reuters
Jakarta, January 20, 2005
Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to grow by around five per cent last year, the country's chief economic minister said on Thursday.
The state budget projected 4.8 per cent growth for 2004, compared with 4.1 per cent a year earlier.
The remarks came in the week that Indonesia's government gathered investors together to offer some $75 billion worth of infrastructure projects to be tendered this year.
"We expect GDP growth in 2004 to come in at around 5 percent, the highest since 2001" Aburizal Bakrie, said in a statement delivered during a meeting with the country's donors.
Jakarta was also holding a meeting with the country's traditional donors to discuss a $3.4 billion aid proposal that would be used to plug the state budget deficit and to help rebuild tsunami-stricken northern Sumatra.
Indonesia's National Development Planning Agency projected the pace of the growth would increase this year to 5.5 per cent and to as much as 7.6 per cent by 2009.
Many analysts say the economy needs to grow by more than six per cent per year to combat chronic unemployment in the world's fourth most populous country.
The largest economy in Southeast Asia has been supported by private consumption in the years since the Asian economic crisis in late 1990s. Analysts said new investments were badly needed to sustain a six per cent growth rate.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.