Workers complete the construction of an office building in Tanah Abang, Jakarta, on Sunday. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said economic growth in 2017 is expected to reach 5.2 percent, higher than a previous estimate of 5.1 percent.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS -- Investments and exports offset the decline in the growth of household and government spending in the first quarter of 2017. Investment and exports helped lift economic growth to 5.02 percent.
"The 5.02 percent growth is the highest quarterly growth since 2015. We hope the trend will continue in the following quarters," Suhariyanto, the head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), said in Jakarta on Friday.
Based on BPS data, Indonesia\'s gross domestic product (GDP) reached a total value of Rp 3.22 quadrillion in the first quarter, 2017, an increase of 5.02 percent. This is the highest quarterly growth in the previous two years, which was 4.82 percent in 2015 and 4.92 percent in 2016.
The GDP is based on household and government consumption, investment and exports minus imports. Traditionally, Indonesia\'s economic growth is mainly driven by the consumer spending, which accounts for more than half of GDP.
In the first quarter, 2017, consumer spending, which accounted for 56.94 percent of GDP remained dominant in the economic growth. However, its growth slowed slightly from 4.97 percent in the first quarter of 2016 to 4.93 percent in the first quarter of 2017.
The growth of government spending, which accounted for 6.58 percent of total GDP, also slowed from 3.43 percent in the first quarter of 2016 to 2.71 percent in the first quarter of 2017. The government spending on goods and personnel grew by 31 percent and 0.87 percent, respectively.
The slowdown in the household and government spending was offset by higher growth in investment and exports during the period. Investments, which accounted for 31.56 percent of GDP grew 4.81 percent, higher than the 4.67 percent in the same period last year.
Government capital expenditure, which accounted for about 10 percent of investment, grew 15.75 percent. While exports recorded the highest growth. Export growth rose from a 3.29 percent decline in the first quarter, 2016, to 8.04 percent in the first quarter, 2017. Exports of goods grew 8.13 percent and service exports grew 7.33 percent.
The head of the Center for Economic and Public Policy Studies at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, A Tony Prasetiantono, said the world, including Indonesia, had begun to come out from the shackles of uncertainty.
