Finance ministry believes 2017 growth will be better

The Indonesian economy will grow at a faster pace in 2017 than it did in 2016, the Ministry of Finance believes.

“I believe the economic growth next year will be higher than that of this year,” chief of the ministrys fiscal policy body, Suahasil Nazara, said at a meeting of the working committee of the House of Representatives (DPR) Budget Body here Wednesday.

Economic growth in the past five years has tended to slow down as internal upheaval and global pressure had slightly affected the national economic performance, he noted.

The economic slowdown is expected to reach its peak this year after the government issued a series of fiscal policies, the first since 2015, aimed at boosting the national economy, he said.

“The fiscal policies are aimed at spurring economic growth. This way we encourage tax receipts and divert expenditures to more productive infrastructure projects from non-productive infrastructure projects and cut fuel subsidies. All of these will lead to higher growth,” he added.

The country began to see the result of the fiscal policies when economic growth was recorded at 4.8 percent in 2015 and 4.92 percent in the first quarter of 2016, he said.

“In view of that, the assumed economic growth for 2016 is set at 5.2 percent as compared to 4.8 percent in 2015. Since the first quarter of 2016, the economic growth has reached 4.9 percent. We believe the turning point has been visible but it takes time to increase,” he said.