JAKARTA ~ The government is expecting the economy will achieve its growth target of 5.8 percent this year, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Budiono said, supported by an ongoing decline in domestic interest rates.

“There are positive signs this target might be achieved but let’s wait until year-end,” he told reporters.

In the second quarter, Indonesia’s GDP grew 2.20 percent from the first quarter, and was up 5.22 percent year-on-year, largely driven by heavy government spending.

The central bank, Bank Indonesia, has said that GDP in the third quarter was likely to have expanded by 5.4 percent year-on-year, aided by firm exports.

The projection is just above the 5.22 percent growth recorded in the second quarter.

In the fourth quarter last year and the first three months of 2006, growth slowed after the government raised fuel prices by an average 126 percent in October 2005.