Economic Growth Target Set At 6.3 Pct In 2013

Jakarta, May 10 (Antara) - Acting Head of Finance Ministry for fiscal policy affairs Bambang Brodjonegoro said the country`s economic growth target for 2013 would be revised from 6.8 percent to 6.3 percent. "We set the growth rate at 6.3 percent as an optimistic target," Bambang said here on Thursday. He said that the setting of the growth target had included projections on global economy which had not yet recovered and the investment which slowed down as a result of the decline in the importation of capital goods in the first quarter. Even though it is revised, Bambang expressed hope that the country`s economic condition would be better than that in the first quarter of 2013, particularly in the investment sector which was now on the rise. In the first quarter of 2013, the economic growth was recorded at only 6.02 percent. "As far as the inflow of foreign direct investment is still taking place, investment still could be boosted further. The problem is that we still need an investment growth of about eight percent," he said. In the meantime, Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said he hoped the government would be able to spend up to 50 percent of annual spending target to jack up economic growth in the first half of this year. It would not be easy, however, as in the first quarter spending reached only 10 percent of the annual target resulting in a slowdown in the economic growth, Hatta said here on Tuesday. The country`s economy grew only 6.02 percent in the first quarter of this year falling short of the target of 6.8 percent set in the state budget. Therefore, the government would push for higher utilization of the government spending budget in the second quarter, he said. "I hope implementation of projects still on the pipeline, in the process of tender and others could be accelerated," he added. He said he hoped by accelerating the utilization of the government and capital expenditures in the investment sector the economy would grow stronger in the second quarter. Earlier the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said the country`s Q1 economic growth fell short of target on a decline in spending. The economic growth was driven mainly by household consumption, which grew 5.17 percent with government spending growing only 0.42 percent on-year. Based on BPS` record, in the first quarter of this year utilization fell to 16 percent of the government and capital expenditures from 17.8 percent in the same period last year. In the 2013 state budget, fund for government expenditures is set at Rp1,154.4 trillion up from Rp1,069.5 trillion with realization at Rp1,001.3 trillion . Hatta said he was optimistic that the country`s economy would grow stronger in the second quarter after the lower than expected performance in the first three months of the year. He predicted, however, the economy would grow only around 6.4 percent this year falling short of the target of 6.8 percent. "Under the prevailing condition, we have to be realistic in seeing the global development which is still marked with uncertainty," he said.