Indonesia GDP Growth Beats Expectations

(RTTNews) - Indonesia's economy grew at the fastest pace in more than three years in the first quarter as government stimulus measures supported the nation amid the adverse effects of the war in the Middle East.

Gross domestic product logged an annual growth of 5.61 percent in the first quarter, surpassing the 5.39 percent expansion registered in the fourth quarter, Statistics Indonesia said Tuesday.

The rate marked the strongest expansion since the third quarter of 2022, when GDP was up 5.73 percent. Economists had expected the annual growth rate to slow marginally to 5.3 percent.

On a quarterly basis, GDP was down 0.77 percent, in contrast to the 0.86 percent expansion seen in the previous period. The expenditure-side of GDP showed that government consumption surged 21.81 percent from a year ago. Household spending rose 5.52 percent and gross fixed capital formation advanced 5.96 percent.

Foreign trade contributed negatively to growth as imports expanded 7.18 percent, while exports rose only 0.9 percent.

For the whole year, the government aims to achieve growth target of 5.4 percent. However, Bank Indonesia forecast growth in the range of 4.9 percent to 5.7 percent this year.