Quake expected to have limited economic impact

       A powerful earthquake that hit Indonesia's Sumatra island this week was seen having a limited impact on growth in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, as the affected areas contributed less than 3% of GDP.
       The United Nations said that about 1,100 people had been killed in Wednesday's 7.6 magnitude quake.Thousands more were feared trapped under damaged houses. West Sumatra province was the worst affected, with Jambi and Bengkulu provinces also hit.
       The following is a summary compiled from various sources of the possible impact on trade, inflation, non-performing loans, the budget deficit and growth:
       The government's GDP growth target of 4.3% is seen largely unaffected. The three provinces contributed less than 3% of the national GDP.
       The country's most populous island of Java contributed half of the country's gross domestic product. Sumatra island contributed about a quarter, but mostly from North Sumatra, Riau and Lampung provinces.
       The three provinces export commodities such as palm oil, rubber and coffee.
       But their exports accounted for only about 1.9% of the country's total exports in the first half of 2009.
       The quake has damaged some roads and was likely to push up prices in the three provinces. A central statistics bureau official, however, said the areas have small weightings in the calculation of the consumer price index.
       The government has set aside at least 250 billion rupiah ($25.92 million) in initial emergency funds to cope with the quake, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.
       Local media reported 2.4 trillion rupiah in disaster funds not yet used in the 2009 budget. The amount mentioned by the finance minister indicated that the quake funds were unlikely to push up the 2009 budget deficit, forecast at 2.4% of GDP.
       The earthquake's impact on nonperforming loans was likely to be limited.Outstanding bank loans in the three provinces were at 35 trillion rupiah, or 2.5% of total loans in the industry as of July.
       The NPL ratio in Indonesia's banking industry stood at 4% as of July.