Indonesia’s annual economic growth eased to 2.97% in the first quarter of 2020 from 4.97% in the previous three-month period. That was the weakest pace of expansion since the fourth quarter of 2001, as the coronavirus health crisis ravaged business activity and demand, amid restriction measures that led consumers to stay at home. The growth of both household consumption (2.84% vs 4.97% in Q4) and fixed investment (1.70% vs 4.06%) slowed.
On the other hand,government spending expanded faster (3.74% vs 0.48%). Meantime, external demand contributed positively to GDP, as exports rose 0.24% (vs -0.39% in Q4) while imports dropped 2.19% (vs-8.05% ). On the production side, output growth slowed mainly for agriculture, forestry and fisheries manufacturing, mining, retail and wholesale trade. The World Bank expects a GDP growth of 2.1% in 2020, but the government is still assuming 2020 GDP growth of 2.3% as its baseline scenario.
