"I got a call from the finance minister from Washington D.C., and she said that 28 countries had lined up to become IMF's 'patients,'" he noted during the opening of the XII Congress of the Veterans Legion of the Republic of Indonesia (LVRI) and the XI National Conference of Veterans Wives (PIVERI) 2022 in here on Tuesday.
According to the president, this meant that several countries witnessed a decline in their economic conditions, one of the reasons being due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This is the condition that I must inform as it is. This means the pandemic that has hit all countries has caused the global economy to collapse," he stressed.
It was made worse by the war between Russia and Ukraine that led to the food crisis, energy crisis, and financial crisis, he stated.
"The current situation is not an easy situation. A very, very difficult situation for all countries. International institutions say 66 countries are prone to collapse. Currently, 345 million people in 82 countries are suffering from acute shortages and hunger. This means there is a food crisis," Jokowi remarked.
From the conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Jokowi could conclude that the war between the two countries would not end anytime soon.
"This is what causes the global economic turmoil. Some European countries have started to go into recession. Later on, as (winter is approaching), they will find it difficult to get heating from gas, so the condition of countries in the world is really in a very difficult position," he pointed out.
Inflation too was rising slowly that meant the prices of all commodities had increased, but economic growth had declined, he noted.
"However, thank God, our country, in the second quarter last time, was still able to grow 5.44 percent. This is one of the best-recorded economic growth in the world because fundamental structural reforms, bureaucratic reform, (all of those) we continue to pursue despite the pandemic," he highlighted.
Moreover, Indonesia's food security had received recognition from the International Rice Research Institute. They observed that Indonesia had a good food security system and had been self-sufficient in terms of the rice stocks since 2019.
"This is what we must continue to improve, so that we can maintain food security in the country, and if able, to improve it. We can use some of it to help other countries by exporting it," he suggested.
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Translator: Desca L N, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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