REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MEDAN -- Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs (HIPMI) for North Sumatra has predicted that businesses in 2014 incline to invest in the service sector such as restaurant or cafe following the downward trend in exports.
"They will make more investment in the real or service sector than in the manufacturing or industry. This is actually not so good for North Sumatra's economic growth because this sector cannot absorb many workers and earn foreign exchange," HIPMI chairman for North Sumatra Firsal Ferial said here on Sunday.
Therefore, HIPMI predicted that the North Sumatra economic growth next year would slow down to only about 5 percent. This will happen amid the increasing inflation boosted by consumptive lifestyle and the rising commodity prices.
Based on data at North Sumatra's Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) in the third quarter of 2013, North Sumatra still could reach 5.9 percent, despite the fact that this figure is actually lower than that in the same period a year earlier which stood at 6.07 percent.