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onsumer goods giant Unilever Indonesia posted slower sales and profit growth last year as a result of the domestic economic slowdown.

Unilever Indonesia, the local arm of Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever NV and plc., saw its net profit increase 2 percent to Rp 5.85 trillion (US$428.75 million) in 2015 compared to the previous year, lower than the 7.5 percent profit growth booked in 2014.

The slight profit growth was supported by a 5.7 percent increase in net sales to Rp 36.5 trillion last year, versus double digit sales growth of around 12 percent a year earlier, according to the company'€™s financial statement published on Wednesday.

The reading on the overseas market was also weak. Unilever'€™s exported sales dropped 8.86 percent to Rp 1.86 trillion, compared to 6.6 percent domestic sales growth to Rp 34.6 trillion in 2015.

Unilever Indonesia governance and corporate affairs director and corporate secretary Sancoyo Antarikso said that the company was able to book growth despite the sales drop because it focused on efficiency in various operation lines to boost its net profit.

However, Unilever acknowledged that it was hit by rupiah depreciation, which hit levels unseen since 1998 last year, as 55 percent of the company'€™s input costs are related to hard currencies.

'€œSingle-digit sales growth in 2015 was heavily affected by the Indonesian macroeconomic condition, which was not conducive,'€ Sancoyo said in an official statement on Wednesday.

The economy slowed to 4.8 percent last year, the slowest since the 2009 global financial crisis, with people'€™s purchasing power also being hit by rupiah depreciation and layoffs reported in the real sector, which resulted in consumers holding off on spending.

The Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions last year revealed that the confidence of Indonesian consumers dropped four points to 116 in the third quarter, a level unseen since the third quarter of 2011.

'€œThe retail sector can grow if purchasing power can also support that. Meanwhile, fuel costs and base electricity rates rose, and the Bank Indonesia [BI] benchmark rate was still 7.5 percent,'€ LBP Enterprise analyst Lucky Bayu Purnomo said of Unilever'€™s weaker-than-expected performance.

However, the performance of the brand holder of Dove personal care and Blue Band margarine, may improve this year, with the central bank'€™s recent move to cut its policy rate to 6.75 percent, a move expected to aid the retail sector.

PT Investa Saran Mandiri analyst Kiswoyo Adi Joe said that the 5 percent net sales growth sufficed for a company as big as Unilever.

'€œI think that if the economy this year can grow by at least 5 percent, their net sales and profit can grow by 7 to 10 percent, that is if the rupiah exchange rate to the US dollar remains under Rp 14,000,'€ he said, adding that he also projected stronger purchasing power this year.

Shares in Unilever, traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) under the code UNVR, traded at Rp 42,975 on Wednesday, unchanged from the previous day. The stocks have risen 16 percent this year, easily outperforming the broader benchmark Jakarta Composite Index'€™s (JCI) 4 percent gain.