Sjarifudin defends economic growth figures<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah
\nyesterday dismissed critics of the government's estimate of
\nIndonesia's economic growth, saying that the figures were based
\non official data collected by the Central Bureau of Statistics.<\/p>\n
Sjarifudin insisted that the data used to obtain the figures
\non the country's economic growth were valid and that the
\nagricultural sector was in fact the main contributor to the
\neconomic growth.<\/p>\n
\"Agricultural subsectors showed sound growth last year. And
\nthe largest contributor, which accounted for 85 percent of the
\nwhole agricultural sector, was rice,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sjarifudin was responding to criticism from the Econit
\nadvisory group which said earlier this week that the 8.07 percent
\neconomic growth calculated by the government was an
\noverestimation, particularly that concerning the agricultural
\nsector.<\/p>\n
The group said the growth of the agricultural sector last year
\ncould not be as high as the estimated 3.96 percent, considering
\nthe reality in the country and official data released by the
\nCentral Bureau of Statistics.<\/p>\n
Econit also considered the overly large value put on
\nagriculture in the calculations made the country's Gross Domestic
\nProduct (GDP) seem high.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the agency calculated that the growth of rice
\nproduction, which contributed the most to the food subsector, was
\nactually lower than that estimated by the government.<\/p>\n
The huge rice imports last year signified that domestic rice
\nproduction had declined, Econit said.<\/p>\n
The agency concluded that an economic growth of 7.7 percent
\nwas more realistic for the country in 1995, based on official
\nfigures and facts.<\/p>\n
Sjarifudin insisted yesterday that last year's rice production
\nwas high, thus the government's estimates were \"rational\".<\/p>\n
He considered the fact that Indonesia imported rice last year
\nhad nothing to do with the estimates of the agricultural sector's
\nGDP.<\/p>\n
\"We are talking about production here, not imports. The two
\nare totally unrelated. Agricultural GDP is based on the value of
\nall agricultural products and not on the amount of their
\nimports,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Since the contribution of rice to the agricultural sector was
\nthe largest, he said, last year's rice production growth of
\nalmost 7 percent was significant to the sector's overall growth.<\/p>\n
\"I'm not too worried about such criticism because our
\ncalculations are based on figures that are collected by the
\nstatistics bureau from across the country, and not on figures we
\nmake up ourselves,\" he said. (pwn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sjarifudin-defends-economic-growth-figures-1447893297",
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