Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Monday that the country is expected to post economic growth of between 4-4.5 percent this year, which he said "looks good." That is more optimistic that the central bank, which has forecast growth of 3-4 percent in 2009, a sharp slowdown from 6.1 percent last year as demand for exports slump.
"Here in Indonesia our prospects look good. We are expected to record GDP growth in 2009 of 4-4.5 percent," Yudhoyono said in an opening address at the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
The government has launched a fiscal stimulus package aimed at boosting growth in Southeast Asia's biggest economy including more spending for infrastructure projects and tax incentives. Yudhoyono said that apart from the growth rates, the quality of economic growth was also important for political and social stability in the world's fourth most populous country. He did not elaborate.
Yudhoyono, the country's first directly elected president, ends his five-year term this year, which would make it the first administration to have completed a full five-year term since the country's political and economic upheaval in 1998. "This is significant because it means we have been able to marry democracy with stability, not an easy thing among countries undergoing transition. And we expect this trend of democratic stability to continue," he said.
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