JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday unveiled the country’s economic growth target for 2018, which is higher than that of this year’s expectation, with lower inflation but weaker rupiah against the US dollar.
Speaking at the parliament ahead of the Independent Day on Thursday, President Widodo said the government forecast the gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 5.4 percent next year, compared with this year’s projection of 5.2 percent.
Inflation was estimated at 3.5 percent in 2018, lower than 4.3 percent expected for 2017, Widodo said. Rupiah value against the US dollars was forecast at 13,500 next year, weaker than 13.400 of this year, he added.President Widodo said the government has set a 8.2-percent growth to 1,878 trillion rupiah (some 140.38 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue next year. Spending at the state development budget would expand 3.3 percent to 2,204.4 trillion rupiah (about 164.78 billion U.S. dollars), according to him. That would narrow the state development budget deficit to 2.19 percent of the GDP compared with this year’s official target of 2.92 percent of the GDP, he said.
