The medium-term economic growth target is difficult to achieve, as the Indonesian economy is growing lesser than its potential.Jakarta (ANTARA) - The average national economic growth has fallen short of its potential since 2014, Chief of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Suharso Monoarfa stated.
“The medium-term economic growth target is difficult to achieve, as the Indonesian economy is growing lesser than its potential,” Monoarfa noted at a meeting with the media here on Thursday.
The Bappenas chief, concurrently the national development planning minister, noted that since the financial crisis engulfed Asia in 1998, the national economy has grown lower than the pre-crisis average and also tended to become stagnant at five percent in each of the past few years.
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The national economy expanded by an average of 7.1 percent annually before the 1998 financial crisis. However, it grew by an average of 5.7 percent per year in the medium- and long-term development plan for the 2005-2009 period, 5.8 percent yearly in the medium- and long-term development plan for the 2010-2014 period, and five percent in the medium- and long-term development plan for the 2015-2019 term.
Monoarfa has projected the national economy to grow below five percent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic if no additional efforts are made. Per capita income disparities will also get wider if the economy failed to grow higher.
In addition, Indonesia will lag behind the Philippines in 2037 and Vietnam in 2043 in terms of the per capita income, while its productivity rate will continue to fall to the lowest in Asia, he pointed out.
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To that end, in 2022, the government deems it necessary to intervene in policies through additional efforts to make Indonesia a high-income country when it celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2045.
According to Monoarfa, 2022 is a crucial year for the Indonesian economy to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The economic recovery is yet to be optimum since we are still focusing on handling the pandemic. There is still a large recovery gap,” he noted.
Through intervention with the application of accurate policies, Monoarfa has projected the Indonesian economy to potentially grow by an average of 6.3 percent per year between 2022 and 2045.
In the government’s work plan 2022, Bappenas has planned various major projects directed toward achieving high economic growth.
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Translator: Kuntum Khaira R, Suharto
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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