Indonesian Growth Unexpectedly Jumps Despite Weak Lending (1)

Indonesia’s second-quarter growth unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest pace in two years, with exports and investment helping an economy that’s beset by weak loan growth and mass job losses in manufacturing.

Gross domestic product in the three months through June rose 5.12% from a year ago, the nation’s statistics office announced on Tuesday. That beat expectations of a slowdown to 4.8% growth, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The rupiah closed little changed at 16,381 against the dollar, while stocks pared gains to 0.7%.

Economists were surprised. Outside of the pandemic, the discrepancy between forecast and actual ...