After contracting for four quarters, the Indonesian economy on Thursday recorded its first expansion on the back of relaxation of COVID-19-related restrictions, the statistics agency said.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.07% in the second quarter this year, compared to the same period in 2020 in the strongest expansion in over a decade, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.

But the growth came from a low base after GDP contracted 5.3% in the same period last year.

Growth was 3.31% in the April-June period compared to the previous quarter, bureau head Margo Yuwono said.

Growth is expected to slow again in the coming quarter after Indonesia imposed tighter restrictions in early July to halt a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.

Indonesia's economy suffered its first annual contraction in more than two decades in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

South-East Asia's largest economy has set its target economic growth for 2021 at between 3.7 and 4.5%.