By IANS,
Jakarta : Indonesia’s economy could grow by 6.7 percent in the fourth quarter should the government speed up spending amid high investment and consumption, Asian Development Bank (ADB) senior economist Edimond Ginting said.
For the whole of this year, the economist said the economy could grow by 6.6 percent, higher than the World Bank’s prediction of 6.4 percent, Bisnis Indonesia reported here Friday.
Ginting said next year the country’s economy could grow slower to 6.3 percent as the gloomy global economy may ease demand for Indonesia’s export products, reported Xinhua.
The prediction is similar with the World Bank projection, but it is still in the range of Indonesia’s central bank forecast of 6.2 percent to 6.7 percent.
Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan has said that it was difficult to sustain the country’s export target at $200 billion next year.
Ginting said that the global crisis may also worsen liquidity and weaken investment.
Nevertheless, the economist said should the central bank keep imposing its strategic monetary policies to ease the impact of the crisis, it was possible that the economy could grow faster, as Indonesia has some instrument to weaken the impact of the global economic slowdown.
He took an example of slowing inflation pressure that gave the central bank room to loosen monetary policy.