Indonesia optimistic to achieve 6.5 % economic growth in 2011

Indonesia's Minister for National Development Planning Armida Alisjahbana said on Tuesday that the country is poised to reach an economic growth of 6.5 percent in 2011 in line with its target. "We manage to achieve the target in time of the global crisis with an economic growth of 4.0 percent while in the same time, many countries corrected their initial growth forecast," said Alisjahbana in a press conference. She said that the performance was accompanied with positive achievement in various aspects of macro economy such as increases in foreign direct investment, export, import and controlled inflation. She also said that the growth was sourced from sectors of spending and production. "In terms of spending, the growth resulted from a people consumption growth of 4.7 percent in 2011, relatively stable as in 2009 and 2010, we achieved the same figures," she said. She said the government's consumption out of capital spending increased 4.1 percent compared to 2010, adding that one most important component is investment sourced from the government, state-run companies, private sector and people. Meanwhile, export increased 15 percent while import was up 16 percent. In the same time, she said that in terms of production, Indonesia managed to keep its momentum. "Our agricultural export growth reached 3 percent in 2011, better than 2010, but not as well as 2009, as we faced many obstacles. The processing industry grew 6 percent while the utility sector of power, gas and clean water also showed positive figures," she said. "It means that we can maintain the momentum. We are optimistic that we could grow by 6.5 percent in 2011," she said.