Indonesia's economy expands 5 pct in 2014, slowest in five years

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's economy in 2014 grew at its slowest pace in five years, as expected, the statistics bureau said on Thursday.

Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 5.02 percent in 2014 compared with 5.58 percent in 2013, using the statistics office's new 2010 base year.

The result compared with the median forecast of 5.07 percent growth in 2014 in a Reuters poll.

Economic growth has been trending down since the first quarter as political uncertainties slowed investments and exports faltered on sliding commodity prices.

In the last quarter, Southeast Asia's largest economy grew 5.01 percent year-on-year, while on a quarterly basis it contracted 2.06 percent. Analysts had expected annual growth of 4.95 percent and a quarterly contraction of 1.48 percent.

Starting with Thursday's report, the statistics bureau has rebased its GDP calculation with 2010 as its base year compared to a previous base year of 2000.

(Reporting by Adriana Nina Kusuma and Nilufar Rizki; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)