They're economists who together are setting Southeast Asia's biggest economy on track for its fastest growth in 11 years.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu, and the central bank's senior deputy governor Miranda Goeltom form an unusual clique in a country where the establishment is dominated by men. "We know each other very well. The chemistry is always very good between the three of us," said Indrawati, a former International Monetary Fund director.

While the three play golf and do lunch together, Indrawati said she values the fact she can discuss economics with the other two, particularly given the isolated nature of her job.

"It's something we can enjoyably share," she said. "Being a minister of finance you feel really lonely and alone. If you are mingling too closely with the business community they will accuse you of being too close, and if you are mingling with the political parties they think you are busy politicking. I have to keep a distance."

The three divas are familiar faces on the IMF, World Bank, and international trade circuit.

In contrast to many of her tight-lipped foreign counterparts, central banker Goeltom, 58, is regularly quoted in the media, most recently on the economic impact of high oil prices.

She often speaks in public, and is famously unpunctual - a trait that saved her life in 2003 when she was stuck in traffic and arrived late for lunch at Jakarta's Marriott hotel, missing a bomb attack by minutes.

Now Goeltom and central bank governor Burhanuddin Abdullah are in the limelight again as economists await further easing.

The benchmark interest rate has fallen to 8.25 percent from a high of 12.75 percent in April last year after 13 rate cuts, as inflation has eased.

The cut in rates has boosted domestic consumption, spurring economic growth which is set to hit 6.3 percent this year. Exports are bouncing back, and foreign direct investment, which faltered on worries about corruption, red tape and legal uncertainty, is close to its 2000 record of US$9.86 billion (HK$76.9 billion).

The reason for the recovery, Indrawati says, is because reforms are starting to have an effect.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general, was elected in 2004 on the back of promises to boost growth, create jobs and tackle graft.

When Indrawati, 45, was appointed finance minister, she embarked on a cleanup of Indonesia's notoriously corrupt tax and customs departments in a bid to raise state revenues.

The former academic has a tough job ahead of her as only one Indonesian in 170 pays tax. For years, tax bills were often settled by greasing palms, but now it's getting harder for the well-heeled to keep the tax office at bay.

While Indrawati tackles tax issues, Trade Minister Pangestu wants to raise the profile of Indonesia's exports.

"Where would the world be without Indonesia?" joked Pangestu recently, pointing out that it makes a substantial portion of the world's zips, Barbie dolls and false eyelashes.

Pangestu is a rare breed in the Cabinet, not just because she's female, but because she's the only ethnic Chinese. Pangestu has lived in boomtown Shanghai where many Indonesian Chinese, including some of the country's wealthiest tycoons, keep homes and run their businesses - valuable firsthand experience for an economist charged with turning Indonesia into a roaring Asian tiger once again.

REUTERS