1994 GDP up 7.34%: Bureau
1994 GDP up 7.34%: Bureau
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia recorded an economic growth rate of 7.34 percent last year, while its annual per capita income reached US$884, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
"The economy, in terms of goods and services produced domestically, is likely to continue to grow at a rate higher than seven percent this year, as a result of last year's significant increase in approvals of investment projects," Soegito, chairman of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), said after a meeting with President Soeharto at the Merdeka Palace yesterday.
Soegito was accompanied by State Minister for National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita in yesterday's meeting.
According to the Investment Coordinating Board, the approvals of foreign investment commitments increased by 192 percent to US$23.7 billion in 1994 from $8.1 billion in 1993 and those of domestic investments by almost 35 percent to Rp 53.3 trillion ($24 billion) from Rp 39.5 trillion.
Soegito said the economic or gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.34 percent was based on constant prices of 1993.
He said that the BPS had started using constant prices of 1993 because the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the country's economy had improved significantly since 1983, while the contribution of agriculture was decreasing.
The contribution of the manufacturing sector to the economy increased from 12.7 percent in 1983 to 22.3 percent in 1993, while the contribution of agriculture decreased from 22.9 percent to 17.9 percent.
The oil and gas sector, which contributed about 21 percent to the GDP in 1983, contributed only 9.6 percent in 1993.
Soegito said the country's GDP, based on constant prices of 1993, grew by 6.5 percent in 1993 and by 6.4 percent in 1992.
"If economic growth in 1994 was calculated on the basis of 1983 prices, it would have reached only 6.61 percent," he said.
He said the bureau did not use 1990 or 1991 as a basis for calculating constant prices because "our economy was overheating then."
"Besides, there have been drastic deregulatory measures and reduction of red tape in the 1990s," he added.
Causes
Soegito said that 1994's growth rested, mainly, on significant growth in three sectors: manufacturing (which grew by 11.06 percent), electricity, water and gas (12.68 percent) and construction (14.71 percent).
Last year the finance sector -- including company services and building rentals -- expanded by 9.42 percent, the trade sector and the hotel and restaurant sector by 9.19 percent, transport and communications by 7.59 percent, the mining sector by 5.32 percent and the service sector -- including the government sector -- by 2.93 percent.
Soegito noted that agriculture had experienced the lowest sectoral growth, expanding by only 0.32 percent last year due to a decline in rice production.
A severe drought following heavy rains and flooding in several places slashed last year's rice output by four percent to 46.40 million tons of unhusked rice from the production level of 1993.
Indonesia, formerly the world's biggest rice importer, became self sufficient in rice in 1984. Rice is the main staple diet of the population, currently about 193 million.
Senior government officials acknowledged that last year's rice supply had been the lowest in 15 years, and that the government had been forced to import rice for the first time in years.
Soegito said that the annual per capita income of $884 had been calculated using a method similar to that used by the World Bank in calculating gross national product.
"If we used BPS's method, which focuses more on goods and services produced domestically in calculating GDP, last year's per capita income figure would have been $919," he said.
According to the BPS, per capita income in 1993 was $767.(hdj)