Negative Economic Growth to Last Until June

VIVAnews - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati projected that Indonesia will continue to experience negative economic growth until mid 2009. The economic slowdown has been on the scene since the fourth quarter of 2008 with minus 3.6 percent.

"(The negative growth) is bound to continue through January and perhaps even mid 2009," said Mulyani on Monday, Feb 16.

Therefore, she said, the government has revised the projected 2009 economic growth from six percent to 4.7 percent. 

This will be a difficult year taking into account the fall in November exports. The situation was different from it was in 2008, which still recorded an economic growth of above six percent. "It's difficult to obtain a positive growth now because in 2008 the economy was in a strong position and at this time we are experiencing negative growth," said Mulyani.

As such, according to Mulyani, the government will try to minimize the impact of the global economic crisis, which has affected exports and imports. "The government's momentum from January until the middle of the year must be able to compensate for external slowdown, with full efforts and the approval of the House of Representatives (DPR). If the stimulus package is approved, we are hoping that the growth can be above four percent, or between four and five percent," said Mulyani.

The Finance Minister added that the government emphasizes that statistical data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) indeed shows that the global economic crisis would indeed affect the world's economic performance. "It's more important to focus on anticipatory and responsive plans to be approved by the House and must be executed by central and regional governments," she said.

Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono