Southeast Asia’s biggest economy expanded 5.02 percent, down from the 5.17 percent it posted in the previous year, owing to weakness in exports and softer manufacturing output. “Sustaining growth in a 5.0 percent range in the current environment isn’t easy,” Indonesian Central Statistics Agency head Suhariyanto, who goes by one name, told reporters in Jakarta. Tourism officials have warned of a drop-off this year, as Indonesia throws up barriers to Chinese visitors over fears of a coronavirus outbreak in that country. “The number of Chinese visitors has dropped significantly since the imposition of travel restrictions,” Ngurah Wijaya, an adviser to Bali Tourism Board and Bali Promotion Board, earlier told Bloomberg News. “We expect the economy to be weak in Q1 as exports take a hit due to the coronavirus outbreak and tourism slows,” it said yesterday.
