Jakarta – Thirty percent of Indonesia's children are underweight and have a lower-than-average height for their age, mostly because of early childhood malnutrition, an expert says.

Ahmad Syafiq, who chairs the center for nutrition studies at the University of Indonesia (UI) in Jakarta, said Thursday those numbers were too high.

"The number of underweight children with a lower-than-average height for their age is not a matter of genetics, but primarily of malnutrition," Syafiq said, as quoted by Antara, at a forum in Makassar, South Sulawesi's capital.

He suggested the government's budget to address malnutrition in women and children was too low.

A UI study reported that 50 percent of the women in the country suffered from anemia which, Syafiq said, put their fetuses at risk during pregnancy and delivery.