Jakarta. The national economy is projected to grow by more than 5.5 percent in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period of last year, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Friday.

The expected figure will be the highest quarterly growth of the year, from 5.01 percent in the first quarter and 5.44 percent in the second.

"The third quarter economy will see a very strong growth of more than 5.5 percent, that's the prediction from the Finance Ministry,” Sri Mulyani told a press conference in Jakarta.

The robust growth is supported by increasing people’s mobility after Covid-19 restrictions were largely lifted, she said.

Retail sales index is improving while the manufacturing sector expansion continued for the 13th consecutive month, she added.

Electricity consumption grew by 8.1 percent in the industrial sector and by 17.3 percent in the business sector.

"In the manufacturing sector, we see the processing industry managed to increase its production capacity, indicating that the third quarter growth is very robust and that the hikes in oil fuel prices had little impact on the economic growth,” the minister said.

The Central Statistics Agency will officially announce major economic figures later this month.

Sri Mulyani warned that a slowdown in the global economy and rising benchmark interest rates may severely hurt Indonesia's key economic indicators and the growth engine for 2023.

The annual economic growth is projected at between 5 and 5.3 percent for 2022.