Indonesia's economy will not be badly affected by the weekend blasts on the resort island of Bali, despite fears of damage to the tourism industry, the IMF and Indonesia's top economic minister said Monday.
"We don't see a massive exodus of foreign tourists as yet, like what happened in 2002," Co-ordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Aburizal Bakrie said, referring to similar attacks on Bali's night-spots which killed 202.
"Should the number of foreign tourist arrivals decline, it (the drop) is unlikely to reach 25 percent," he added.
Badrie said that a 25 percent decline in foreign tourist arrivals could potentially cut the country's economic growth by 0.25-0.30 percentage points.
If tourist arrivals drop by as much as 50 percent, it could cut economic growth by around 0.50-0.60 percent.
The government projects GDP growth of 6.0 percent this year. Tourism income contributes around 5.0 percent of GDP.
Despite the Bali tragedy and last week's fuel price hike, which saw pump prices more than double, Bakrie said he was still optimistic that growth this year can reach 5.9 percent.