Indonesia GDP Rebounds In Q2

(RTTNews) - Indonesia's economy rebounded at a faster-than-expected pace in the second quarter driven by robust consumption, investment and foreign demand, official data showed on Thursday.

Gross domestic product expanded 7.07 percent year-on-year, in contrast to the 0.71 percent decline posted in the first quarter, Statistics Indonesia reported.

This was the first expansion in five quarters and exceeded economists' forecast of 6.57 percent. With the fastest growth in more than a decade, the economy pulled out of recession in the second quarter.

Southeast Asia's largest economy grew 3.31 percent on a quarterly basis, reversing a 0.92 percent fall in the first quarter. The sequential growth was also faster than the economists' forecast of 2.94 percent.

The expenditure-side breakdown showed that exports logged the biggest annual growth of 31.78 percent. At the same time, imports were up 31.22 percent.

Household spending advanced 5.93 percent and government expenditure gained 8.06 percent. Investment rose 7.54 percent.

Given the weak base for comparison, annual figures are not much help in gauging the strength of the recovery, Gareth Leather, an economist at Capital Economics, said.

The near-term economic outlook has deteriorated markedly more recently, due to a surge in virus cases, the economist said. The economy is likely to grow by just 2.5 percent this year and that GDP will not regain its pre-crisis level until next year.