The World Bank predicted economic growth of INDONESIA only 6.2%

Giri Prakosa

Sindonews.com -the World Bank through the World Bank estimates Indonesia's economic growth of Indonesia in 2013 will be at a 6.2 percent rate, or slightly lower than last year's estimate of 6.3 percent. But in 2014, the World Bank projected that Indonesia's economic growth will reach 6.5 percent.

Sector Manager of the World Bank Lead Economist & Indonesia, Jim Brumby said Indonesia's economic growth is still strong compared to that trading partner countries. However, increasing pressure for Indonesia.

He mentioned, the source of pressure on Indonesia's economy slowed the pace of investment, among others, the potential implications of slowing sales growth in nominal GDP and real, external balance sheet trends, the burden of FUEL subsidies, and reduced the rate of poverty reduction slowed.

"With a variety of pressure on economy, poverty reduction targets Indonesia could miss up to 1-2 people, equivalent to about 2-3 million," Brumby said in a quarterly report released today, Monday (18/3/2013).

He mentioned, inefficient government spending is still so big problem for Indonesia, especially the amount of allocation for energy subsidies, especially Fuel (BBM).

Despite increasing pressure increases, the Brumby optimistic Indonesia's economy could continue to go up with an appropriate policy response. That needs to be done to increase investment in Indonesia, according to him, is the certainty of policy and regulatory framework improvements.

While investment is also needed to improve their hard work to overcome the challenges in the field of infrastructure investment. In terms of trade, according to the World Bank, the economy of Indonesia needs to focus more on increasing the competitiveness and not import restrictions.

Brumby also mentions, Indonesia should take advantage of its position as the country with the fastest urbanization rates to boost economic growth.

(gpr)

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Trade gap shrinks, hinting at stronger GDP growth

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Reuters   –   15 hrs.

The U.S. trade deficit shrank in December to its narrowest in nearly three years, suggesting the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.

The country's trade gap narrowed to $38.5 billion during the month, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a deficit of $46 billion.

That suggests the U.S. government will revise upward its advance reading for fourth-quarter gross domestic product, which showed the economy contracted at a 0.1 percent annual rate in part because of a decline in inflation-adjusted exports.

The government had released its estimate for fourth-quarter GDP before the December trade data was available. That GDP report suggested the government was projecting a wider trade deficit in December.

Friday's data showed U.S. exports surged by $8.6 billion during the month, boosted by sales of industrial supplies, including a $1.2 billion increase of non-monetary gold. In a reflection of a boom in oil output driven by hydraulic fracturing technologies, petroleum exports rose by nearly $1 billion during the month to a record high level.

A fall in petroleum imports led overall purchases from abroad to decline $4.6 billion in December. For the entire year, the country's imports of crude oil fell to their lowest levels since 1997 in terms of volume.

For all of 2012, the U.S. trade gap fell by 3.5 percent to $540.4 billion. Running trade deficits means the country bleeds dollars, so trade is still a drag on the U.S. economy. But rising exports are helping it to be less of a drag than in prior years.

Exports last year rose 4.4 percent.

While the overall trade deficit shrank, it grew with China during the year. That will be sure to raise hackles from American manufacturers who want the United States to pressure the Asian giant more to strengthen its currency.

But even the figures on China had a silver lining. While U.S. imports last year from China increased to a record high, so did America's exports to the country. America's December trade deficit with China for goods, which was not seasonally adjusted, narrowed by $4.5 billion on a drop in imports.

The U.S. trade deficit increased with the European Union last year but America's surplus with Brazil rose.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

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