Indonesian official denies slowdown in its economy

A senior official at Indonesian Finance Ministry said on Wednesday that the nation's economy is not slowing down despite the fact that it gained 4.71 percent growth in the first quarter this year, or lower than 5.2 percent in the same period last year.

"This is not slower gains, we had already reformed the state budget that was approved in February. It is true that the economy has not ascending to a better condition yet, but it is not slowing down," Suahasil Nazara, the acting head of fiscal policy at the ministry said here.

Suahasil was responding to the World Bank's (WB) latest quarter report published in July this year entitled Slower Gains that showed slowing down economy growth due to the weakening of long- term investment.

In the report, the WB reminds Indonesia on the importance of infrastructure expenditure which is supported efforts to preserve deficit to below 3 percent in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) so as to avoid from slow economy pace.

According to Suahasil, the economy downturn in Indonesia was felt since 2012 due to external situation that affected Indonesia' s commodity process. Indonesia was largely dependent on natural resources commodity exports.

To respond to the economic downturn, the government was then increased allocation for infrastructure, aimed at facilitating the investments which is highly expected to significantly propel economy growth. Endi