Indonesia’s Retail Sales Grew by 9.1% in February
Indonesian Retails Sales. Photo: Special
JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) – Indonesian retail sales grew by 9.1 percent in February, up from January at 7.2 percent, proven by the Real Sales Index of the Bank Indonesia (BI) today. The index increased are mainly sourced from the clothing subgroup and the cultural and recreational goods group.
Retail sales are expected to continue to grow high in March, said the central bank. This is indicated by the rise sales of the clothing subgroup and the parts and accessories group.
The survey also indicated price pressures at the retail trader level in the next three months or May are maintained. This reflected in the upcoming three-month General Price Expectation Index of 153.9, down from 154.3 in the previous month.
The increasing or decreasing of retail sales influence Indonesia’ economic growth. Indonesian government eyes a higher economic growth in 2020 compared to this year.
Government assumed that Indonesia’ economy will grow in a range of 5.3 to 5.5 percent, higher than the 2019’ target at 5.3 percent. According to National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, government desires a higher growth, but there are several medium-term issues need to be fixed.
One of the biggest challenges is manufacture sector revitalization supported by high-quality human resources, he said. Besides, government will continue to focus on infrastructure, especially clean water and electricity. Based on the agency data, infrastructure contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is considered low at 43 percent, while other countries can be at 70 percent.
Moreover, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati added, government will put attention on maintaining a more balance economy structure and slashing current account deficit (CAD). She said that the meeting also discussed about how to upgrade Indonesia from middle income to upper income country. She expects that it will be detailed in another meeting.
President Joko Widodo was explained that there are four things that will be focused on ahead of 2020. He wants that the macroeconomy and fiscal policy working plan sustainably continues, even though Indonesia’ entering election year.
He said, the government will continue prioritizing human resources. Moreover, he hopes that the 2020’ working plan can anticipate the world’ economy dynamics. And the least, Indonesia’s positive economic growth moment must be maintained.
Written by Staff Editor