PT Gudang Garam, Indonesia's largest cigarette maker,

PT Gudang Garam, Indonesia's largest cigarette maker, forecast 2003 sales of 62 billion sticks, a slight increase from last year's 61 billion sticks, Heru Budiman,the company's treasury and investor relations director, said.

This year's profit will probably be little changed, he said. He didn't give reasons.

Gudang Garam's sales volume rose 5.2 percent to 50.4 billion in the nine months to Sept. 30, helped by higher sales of its machine-rolled clove cigarettes. Nationwide, sales by all Indonesian cigarette makers fell 1 percent in the period.

The fact that ``we haven't raised our prices since March helped our sales volume,'' Budiman told a media and analyst gathering. Gudang Garam's market share rose to 37.2 percent in the nine months, from 35 percent the same period last year.

Gudang Garam expects this year's sales of cigarettes by all Indonesian cigarette makers to little change from last year's 177 billion sticks on weak purchasing power.

Indonesia's government raised fuel prices in January and thrice this year increased electricity tariffs three times by 6 percent each as it seeks to narrow its deficit to Rp 34.4 trillion (US$4.1 billion) this year.

The company expects sales to continue growing next year, as Indonesia's stronger economy may boost demand for its products. The country expects 4.8 percent economic growth next year, faster than this year's estimated 4 percent, helped by investment and consumer spending. The country also said earlier it won't raise excise tax on cigarettes next year.

``Gudang Garam, which had negative growth last year, may book positive growth next year, although it won't be much'' Rani Sofjan, an analyst at PT Mandiri Securities, said in a phone interview.