The government and the House of Representatives’ Commission XI overseeing financial affairs have agreed to set an economic growth target of between 5.2 and 5.6 percent in the 2018 State Budget
he government and the House of Representatives’ Commission XI overseeing financial affairs have agreed to set an economic growth target of between 5.2 and 5.6 percent in the 2018 State Budget.
The agreement was made by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Commission members during a two-day meeting on macroeconomic assumption in Jakarta on Monday and Tuesday.
Bank Indonesia governor Agus Martowardojo also attended the meeting
Initially, the government proposed a growth target between 5.4 and 6.1 percent, while Bank Indonesia offered the range of 5.1 to 5.5 percent.
Before the decision was made, lawmakers were leaning toward to the central bank’s suggestion, but Sri Mulyani argued that it did not reflect optimism.
"We hope the lower bound can be raised to 5.2 or 5.3 percent, while the upper bound can be raised to 5.6 or 5.7 percent," she said during the meeting.
The meeting also agreed in several other assumptions, including inflation between 2.5 and 4.5 percent, a rupiah exchange rate against the United States dollar at between 13,300 and 13,500, a three-month Treasury Bill rate of between 4.8 and 5.6 percent, a poverty rate between 9.5 and 10 percent, and the human development index (HDI) at 0.715.
Meanwhile, Commission XI chair Melchias Markus Mekeng, who led the meeting, said that all the agreed figures were subject to change until the time the 2018 State Budget Bill would be presented by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in his speech on Aug. 16. (bbn)
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