Indonesia’s GDP Growth Slows, Increasing Scope to Hold Rate

Indonesia’s economic growth slowed last quarter as government spending eased, boosting scope to extend a pause in interest-rate increases after inflation cooled.

Gross domestic product rose 6.5 percent in the three months through March from a year earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in Jakarta today. It gained 6.89 percent in the prior quarter, according to previously reported data. The first-quarter number was lower than the 6.58 percent median forecast of 14 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.