House Budget Commission Discusses Economic Growth With Govt

Jakarta, June 4 (Antara) - The House Budget Commission (Banggar) met with the government and Bank Indonesia here on Tuesday to agree on economic growth and inflation rate targets in the revised 2013 state budget. "Banggar has received the authority to take a decision on the economic growth target range of 6.2-6.5 percent and the inflation target range of 6.0-7.2 percent the government and the House Commission XI have agreed upon," Banggar Chief Ahmadi Noor Supit said in a discussion on the government`s macro economic assumptions in the draft of the revised 2013 state budget. Earlier, both the government and the House Commission XI have agreed to set the economic growth target range of 6.2-6.5 percent and the inflation target range of 6.0-7.2 percent. They also have agreed to set the target of the rupiah`s exchange rate at Rp9,600 a dollar, the target of interest rate on state treasury notes for 3-month deposit at 5.0 percent, oil price at US$108 a barrel, oil lifting (oil sold) at 849 thousand barrels per day and gas lifting at 1,240 thousand barrels per day. The meeting was called to decide economic growth and inflation rate targets in the revised 2013 state budget. Banggar member Dolfi OFP proposed an economic growth target of 6.5 percent in the revised 2013 state budget to help create new jobs particularly in the agricultural sector. "We propose an economic growth rate of 6.5 percent. With the economic growth of 6.5 percent, we will lose 105,000 jobs in the agricultural sector, much less to set it at 6.2 percent. This is important to maintain economic activities in the agricultural sector," he said.