Indonesia says FDI commitments rise 14% y-o-y in Q1

[JAKARTA] Commitments for foreign direct investments (FDI) in Indonesia rose 14 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, picking up from 10.5 per cent growth in the last quarter of 2014.

The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) said on Wednesday that Southeast Asia's largest economy attracted 82.1 trillion rupiah (S$8.4 billion) of FDI commitments in January-March, up from the 78.7 trillion rupiah commitments in October-December.

The board reports FDI commitments in rupiah terms and it uses 12,500 per dollar as the basis for its calculation.

The FDI figures will be an encouraging sign for President Joko Widodo, who assumed office in October, and is aiming to revive an economy which grew at its slowest pace in five years in 2014.

Jokowi wants to boost economic growth to more than 7 per cent at the end of his term in 2019, up from 5.02 per cent last year, mainly by attracting offshore investment.

In the first three months of the year, mining, food and utilities industries were the biggest beneficiaries of FDI commitments.

The data from the BKPM exclude investments in banking and the oil and gas sector.

REUTERS