Indonesian economy gains speed in Q4 with 5.04% growth

Jakarta

INDONESIA's economy picked up speed in the fourth quarter thanks to higher public spending, suggesting that President Joko Widodo is finally starting to unclog much needed infrastructure investment and spur growth in the year ahead.

South-east Asia's largest economy grew 5.04 per cent in October-December from a year earlier, supported by government spending, gross domestic product (GDP) data from the statistics bureau showed on Friday.

That was above the 4.74 per cent in the third quarter, but a collapse in prices for Indonesia's main commodities and cooling growth in major trading partner China drove full-year growth to 4.79 pe…