A Note on Economic Trends in Indonesia

Abstract

Contrary to prevalent impressions, certain indicators suggest that Indonesia did not orient her national economic system in all dimensions along the lines of a Communist model during President Sukarno's tenure. While reliance on domestic and international Communist forces kept increasing, a monetary policy persisted which strengthened the private sector of the economy, the country's bourgeoisie. Specifically, credit allocations by the Central Bank of Indonesia-an agency of governmental policy-imply a noticeable shift toward private enterprise economy with the share of the public sector shrinking. In order to detect changes in attitude toward the private sector versus the public sector several approaches were considered: (i) analysis of the composition of gross domestic capital formation by the type of purchaser as private sector or public sector; (2) analysis of employment by the private sector versus the public sector; (3) analysis of consumption expenditures by the private sec-