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A Bank Indonesia (BI) official says growth this year is expected to come in at between 6.0% and 6.2%, Bloomberg reported. Hartadi A. Sarwono, deputy central bank governor in charge of monetary policy, said the picture for the full-year was benign, Bloomberg reported. “We still see some indicators showing economic activity, though at the same time we see some external and domestic pressures because of high inflation rates and food commodity prices,” he said.
Bank lending was growing by over 30%, with most used for working capital. “Loans for investments have also increased faster than in the previous quarter,” he added. Economic news during the week was dominated by the release of inflation figures, which showed year-on inflation at a 21-month high of 11.03% in June, using new calculations by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) that reduced the weighting of food in the index. As expected, Bank Indonesia raised its benchmark interest rate for the third month in a row to 8.75%. The trade surplus jumped to $3.20 billion in May from $1.59 billion in April, thanks to higher values of crude palm oil exports. Indicators: | | April | May | May 08/ May 07 | Cumulative 2008 | | Total exports | $10.97 billion | $12.89 billion | 31.41% | $57.48 billion | | Non-oil & gas exports | $8.49 billion | $9.67 billion | 20.68% | $44.40 billion | | | May (y-o-y) | May (m-o-m) | June (y-oy) | June (m-o-m) | | Inflation | 10.38% | 1.41% | 11.03% | 2.46% | | | Full year 2005 | Full year 2006 | Full year 2007 | First quarter 2008 | | GDP growth | 5.60% | 5.5% | 6.3% | 6.28% | | Tourist arrivals | April | May | Growth (m-o-m) | Growth (y-o-y) | | | 459,100 | 508,955 | 10.85% | 13.86% | Source: Central Statistics Agency Compiled by: Mahendra Siregar and Hari S. Noegroho Source: http://www.ekon.go.id |