---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ++ Pemilu Online: http://www.indo-news.com/pemilu/ ++ ---------------------------------------------------------- New Straits Times Press (NSTP) Interactive, Juli 1 1999 Indonesia's Second Quarter GDP Up 1.82 Percent, Inflation Down JAKARTA, July 1 (AFP) - Indonesia's economy grew 1.82 percent in the quarter to June compared to a year earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. Gross Domestic Product in the three months was up 0.47 percent from the first quarter. "GDP growth in the second quarter was due to a recovery in the services sector, trade, hotel and restaurant sectors," bureau head Sugito Suwito told a news conference. He said the bureau was now forecasting full-year 1999 GDP growth of 0.13 percent, after successive quarters of negative growth from the onset of the economic crisis in late 1997 until the first quarter of this year. Sugito said the forecast was based on the assumption that "political and social conditions are stable in the second half." He said that at an exchange rate of 6,500 rupiah against the dollar, per capita GDP in 1999 should rise to 803 dollars from 484 dollars a year earlier. Danareksa economist Raden Pardede called the second quarter GDP figures one of the "signs of recovery." But he and several other economists, said they found it "quite surprising" that the second quarter GDP rose from the previous quarter. Meanwhile the consumer price index in June fell 0.34 percent from May, but was up 24.52 percent compared to a year earlier, Sugito said. Food prices in June fell 0.32 percent month-on-month, while processed food, beverages and cigarette prices declined by 0.01 percent, and clothing prices were down 0.12 percent. But housing prices rose 0.07 percent month-on-month, health prices were up 0.01 percent, education, recreation and sport prices were up 0.02 percent and transport and communication prices were up 0.01 percent. The trade surplus rose to 2.063 billion dollars in May compared to 1.978 billion dollars a month earlier, Sugito said. Exports in May were worth 4.056 billion dollars compared to 3.775 billion dollars in April and 3.939 billion dollars a year earlier, while imports were 1.993 billion dollars compared to 1.797 billion dollars in April and 1.930 billion dollars a year earlier. Sugito said non-oil exports in May were 3.374 billion dollars compared to 3.133 billion dollars in April and 3.291 billion dollars a year earlier. Non-oil imports were 1.814 billion dollars compared to 1.763 billion dollars a month earlier and 1.737 billion dollars the year before. "The increase in exports in May is a positive signal given that in the previous months, exports declined," Sugito said. "We expect the strong rupiah appreciation against the dollar in June will not be counter-productive for exports in the coming months," he said, adding that the government believes the driving factor behind exports rise was growing demand not the weak exchange rate. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 5 Jul 1999 jam 06:06:43 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
