JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia recorded faster than expected economic growth in the January to March quarter, official data showed on Friday, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy continues its recovery from the pandemic.
Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 5.03% in the first three months from a year earlier, quicker than the median forecast of 4.95% in a Reuters poll and slightly above the 5.01% growth in the fourth quarter.
Indonesia’s post-pandemic recovery has been helped by a commodities-led export boom, though analysts expect a slowdown in growth as commodity prices ease and monetary policy tightening around the world hits global demand.
Indonesia’s own monetary tightening, including interest rate hikes totalling 225 basis points between August and January, could also hit domestic demand.
The central bank has paused tightening in the past three months and some economists expect it to keep interest rates unchanged for the rest of the year.
Transportation, warehousing and hospitality sectors recorded the fastest year-on-year growth in the first quarter.
Statistics Indonesia will release the GDP breakdown based on expenditure later on Friday.
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman, Gayatri Suroyo and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor, Martin Petty)
