TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Faster government spending needed to cushion Trump effect
Change Size
National Development Planning Agency chief Bambang Brodjonegoro (second left) is part of a panel at a round table discussion on the 2016 Economic Outlook in Jakarta on August 9. (thejakartapost.com/Ayomi Amindoni)
T
he government should speed up the disbursement of state spending next year to help the country ease the impacts of global economic uncertainties and meet its growth target, an official has suggested.
National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) chief Bambang Brodjonegoro said the global economy would remain volatile until the United States president-elect Donald Trump officially launched his economic program next year.
Until then, global investors prefer to wait and see.
"Then our [economic growth] engine during the first quarter next year will only come from domestic consumption and government spending," the former finance minister said on Thursday in a public forum.
Under such circumstances, Bambang predicted that the growth of the Indonesian economy would be stagnant should the government see the usual pattern in state spending, in which state budget absorption only quickens in the second quarter.
"Based on our calculations, a slow and uneven government spending would cut Indonesia’s 2017 economic growth by 20 to 30 basis points from the 5.1-5.3 percent baseline," he said.
President-elect Trump, who endorsed a trade protectionist stance during his campaigns, is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 20. (hwa)
