I

ndonesia’s economy is seen accelerating further in the third quarter of this year despite global economic uncertainties that have affected global financial markets.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said on Monday that the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) might expand 6.6 percent in the July-September period versus 6.5 percent in the two prior quarters thanks to Indonesia’s resilience to overseas crises due to its domestic-consumption driven economy, which has attracted new investments into the country.

Trade-wise, he added, the country would unlikely be greatly affected by a slowdown in European nations and the United States.

“We are concerned by the global economic conditions, so we need to remain vigilant. Indonesia will not be directly affected as our major trading partners are not directly Europe and the United States, but rather the latest composition is more with Japan, China, Korea and India,” Agus said on the sidelines of a regional forum in Nusa Dua, Bali.

This year, the country’s economy might grow toward the top end of the 6.3 to 6.8 percent range, though in the revised 2011 state budget, the official economic growth target was set at 6.5 percent.

Bank Indonesia (BI), however, saw a stagnant or slowing economic growth next year as the world economic slowdown was seen affecting global trade with slower exports across the board.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced on Monday that exports from January to August were valued at US$134.85 billion, a 36.58 percent rise from the same period last year, with a contribution of $107.37 billion from non oil and gas exports.

Imports, on the other hand, rose by 30.90 percent to $114.84 billion from the corresponding period past year.

Despite a solid export growth during the first eight months, BPS chairman Rusman Heriawan warned that the government and the local business players had to take necessary measures to curb the impacts of the continuing global economic downturn in the longer term.

“The crisis has affected the US and China as well. We need to tackle this all out so that the impacts on our economy can be minimized,” he said in a press conference in Jakarta.

Rusman added that declining exports would be the real threat, and that the crisis might bring delayed negative effects to overall export performance in 2012.

“We must avert a drastic decline in exports. We have the opportunity to diversify our exports to countries which are not heavily affected by the crisis, like Middle East countries. However, we have yet to do this optimally,” he added.

According to Rusman, domestic stakeholders also have to anticipate the impacts of the crisis on ASEAN countries.

“The domino effect will also influence ASEAN, which possibly affects us,” he said.

During the January-August period, Indonesia’s non oil and gas exports to ASEAN reached $22.09 billion, or 20.58 percent of total exports, according to BPS data.

Deputy Trade Minister Mahendra Siregar said the government was eyeing African countries, such as South Africa, and South American countries, including Brazil, as well as Middle Eastern nations as destinations of its export diversification move.

“[To anticipate this crisis], we also need other things beyond trade instruments, including boosting investments and encouraging exports of added value products,” he said.