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.