Joko reshuffles Cabinet as growth slips to six-year low

Jakarta

INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo put two experienced technocrats into key economic management posts on Wednesday in a Cabinet reshuffle designed to reassure investors worried about a policy drift that has allowed growth to slip to a six-year low.

Mr Joko's choice of ministers defied expectations that his own party would compel him to make political appointments, a move that may surprise critics who say he has not been the robust leader they had hoped for when he took office last year.

Darmin Nasution, who was central bank governor from 2010 to 2013 and received his doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris, was chosen to replace Sofyan Djalil as Chief Economic Minister. Mr Nasution, 66, is widely respected in the business community and the financial markets, which may help shore up confidence as the rupiah languishes at its lowest levels against the US dollar in more than 17 y…