Indonesia Told to Create Jobs

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Monday called on Indonesia to boost its potential growth rate and channel revenues to more development spending to help create jobs for its growing labor force, Reuters reported. After meeting with President Joko Widodo at the start of a week-long trip to Indonesia, Lagarde praised the country’s economic management and stronger policies. “Indonesia’s economy continues to prove resilient with a sound economic performance and favorable outlook,” she said in a statement issued after the meeting. But in recent years, Indonesia has struggled to get its growth rate to exceed 5%, well below the pace of China and India, amid tepid consumer demand and foreign direct investment. GDP growth failed to meet the government’s 5.2% budget target last year and the IMF is forecasting that Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, will grow by 5.3% in 2018. Lagarde said she and Widodo discussed the importance of achieving higher potential growth to help create jobs, adding “this requires mobilizing revenues to finance development spending and support reforms in the product, labor and financial markets.”