BAPPENAS SAYS INDONESIA'S ECONOMIC GROWTH DECLINING

Jakarta, Apr 13 (ANTARA) - The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) estimated that this year's economic growth will be undergoing a significant decline.

Bappenas director of macro development Bambang Prijambodo said here Sunday the export decline became apparent since the fourth quarter of last year during which exports reached 0,9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the 5 percent in the third quarter.
Demand for consumer goods and investment had also been declining in view of the current global economic crisis.
"Nevertheless, Indonesia's economy is still growing by a higher rate that those of the other Asian countries," he said.
He said the economy of other Asian countries had been predicted to continue to decline, and under these circumstances the government needs to bring about a price stability and raise the value of the rupiah.
Bambang also agreed with Bank Indonesia (BI) which had predicted that the Indonesian economy in the first quarter of 2009 would drop by less than five percent.
Earlier, BI had predicted the economic growth in the first quarter of this year would still reach more than four percent, although lower than the 5.2 percent in the last quarter of 2008.
In the meantime, BI's economic and monetary research director Made Sukada said the growth in the first quarter of this year would be lower than that in the previous quarter.