VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Minister of National Development Planning (PPN) / Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Bambang Brodjonegoro said that a country's economic growth should not only be supported by consumption alone. Consumption is considered only to have an economic multiplier effect, but it cannot encourage the economic growth. This was conveyed by Bambang in his presentation at the 2018 Gross Fixed Capital Formation Disaggregation (PMTB) activity held by Indonesian Statistics Agency (BPS) in Jakarta, Thursday (23/8).

"We as a planning institution certainly want to direct Indonesia so that Indonesia has high quality economic growth. And the most important thing is that Indonesia can jump, get out of the middle income trap. And that needs high growth. This high growth can not only rely on the consumption. Because if we rely on the consumption, we must be honest, the data submitted by Pak Kecuk when we are in the second quarter seems to be somewhat relieved because of 5.27 percent economic growth. But we must be honest that there are efforts to increase consumption both naturally because of the holidays and fasting and second because there are annual bonuses. The only problem is we don't want the economic growth to be high when the government disbursed the annual bonuses," Bambang said.

Bambang continued, one of the sources of the economic growth that Indonesia could rely on besides consumption was investment. The incoming investment will later create jobs, so that it will encourage public consumption. Not only that, investment also encourages productivity, so that there is a possibility that net exports will also be boosted. If both things improve, it is guaranteed that the economic growth is getting better. However, Bambang said investment growth needs to be supported by an adequate strategy. One of these strategies can be achieved through the preparation of comprehensive or comprehensive Fixed Capital Formation Disaggregation (PMTB) data. (VOI / Rezha/AHM)