Indonesia's Economy Improves in 2nd Quarter: Minister Darmin  

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said that Indonesia’s economy showed an improvement in the second quarter of 2016, reflected by quarterly and monthly movement.

According to Darmin, the economy has not yet showed an improvement on a yearly basis.

"But if you look at quarterly or monthly data, there is an improvement in Indonesia's economy," Darmin said in Jakarta on Monday, July 25, 2016.

Darmin added that one the sectors showing a positive movement was the retail sector. After a declining trend overall several quarters, the sector had shown a positive movement in the second quarter of this year.

"Other sectors with positive trend include car and cement sales figure, as well as exports and imports," Darmin explained.

Darmin claimed that the overall increasing trend in each sector reflected a positive movement of the economy in the second quarter.

Juda Agung, executive director of economic and monetary policy department at Bank Indonesia (BI), echoed Darmin's comment, as saying that household consumption, particularly retail sales, had increased.

"[Retail sales] are boosted by durable goods," Juda explained.

Juda pointed out that the current retail sales figure is better than those during the global crisis in 2008 and 2009 that dipped to minus 10 percent.

"Meanwhile, the retail sales figure continue to grow by averagely 12.7 percent," he said, adding that the household consumption increased by 4.9-5 percent.

VINDRY FLORENTIN