ECONOMIC GROWTH TO DEPEND ON DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION

Jakarta, April 2 (ANTARA) - The Central Board of Statistics (BPS) said Indonesia's economic growth still could be boosted if domestic consumption increased drastically.

"It is the domestic consumption that can help economic growth because our export continues to go down while investment is still running at a moderate rate," BPS chairman Rusman Heriawan said on Wednesday.
He said that the 2009 state budget had set an economic growth target of 4.5 - 5.5 percent while Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank) had predicted that Indonesia's economic growth this year would grow at a rate between 3.0 and 4.0 percent.
The BPS chairman said that the government's fiscal stimuli should be implemented immediately so that it would soon boost the activities of economic expansion by the private sector and the people.
"Social expenditures should be high so that it could generate industry which has lost its export market. Now the market that still could develop is the domestic market that needs to be boosted with fiscal stimulus so that the purchasing power of the people could be raised," he said.
Heriawan said that up to now domestic consumption was still at a normal level which indicated that there was still a chance to boost it further in order to support the economic growth.
"The people's consumption is apparently still strong as it seems that no market has experienced gloom," the BPS chairman added.***