Low Economic Growth, Government Will Add More Stimuli?

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded that Indonesia’s economic growth in the first quarter of this year only hit 2.97 percent, or lower than Sri Mulyani's, the Finance Minister, projection at 4.6 percent. However, the agency’s data showed that the agriculture sector experienced the highest quarterly growth of 9.46 percent. Meanwhile, on an annual basis, the development of the financial industry and insurance services remained the highest at 10.67 percent.

The transportation sector suffered the most, falling from last year’s 7.55 percent to 1.27 percent in the first quarter of 2020, followed by the trade and construction sectors, slowing down from 5.21 percent to 1.6 percent, and from 5.91 percent to 2.9 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, based on the expenditure component, the most significant year-on-year slowdown hit household consumption, from 5.02 percent to only 2.84 percent in the first quarter of 2020. On the other hand, investments contracted from 5.03 percent to 1.7 percent, and government consumption slumped from 5.22 percent to 3.74 percent.