Indonesia is one of the few countries with a fast, consistent, and inclusive economic recoveryJakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia is among the few countries that have managed to recover quickly from the global crisis in recent years, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has said.
"Indonesia is one of the few countries with a fast, consistent, and inclusive economic recovery," he highlighted in his address on the 2024 state budget bill and its financial notes before the Plenary Session of the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta on Wednesday.
According to him, Indonesia has managed to overcome a major crisis, namely the COVID-19 pandemic.
He noted that the global economy lost up to US$2 trillion in the past 3 years due to the pandemic, which also forced all countries to use their fiscal, monetary, and financial policy instruments.
Even so, not all countries succeeded in overcoming the crisis. According to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 36 countries were facing economic pressure due to increased debt burden as of June 2023.
Meanwhile, Indonesia was one of the countries that managed to handle the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic quickly, the President noted.
This improvement was reflected in Indonesia's economic growth, which remained above 5 percent in the last 7 quarters, Widodo said.
Furthermore, the unemployment rate was brought down from 6.26 percent in February 2021 to 5.45 percent in February 2023. The poverty rate also continued to decline to reach 9.36 percent in March 2023 after reaching a peak of 10.19 percent in September 2021.
He added that the same development was also seen in the extreme poverty rate, which dropped to 1.12 percent in March 2023 from 2.04 percent in March 2022.
"The fast and strong economic recovery has brought Indonesia to re-enter the group of upper-middle-income countries in 2022," he noted.
According to Widodo, the trend of economic recovery in Indonesia has also continued to show positive results. In the first half of 2023, the national economy grew by 5.1 percent, with inflation controlled at 3.1 percent as of July.
Indonesia's fiscal policy has also been one of the most effective tools in dealing with the pandemic and maintaining economic growth, he said.
He informed that Indonesia managed to restore its fiscal deficit to below 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) one year earlier than the initial plan.
In most other countries, the fiscal deficit is still very wide. For instance, in India, the fiscal deficit was recorded at 9.6 percent of the GDP per year in 2022, Japan 7.8 percent, China 7.5 percent, the United States 5.5 percent, and Malaysia 5.3 percent.
Indonesia's debt ratio is also one of the lowest among the G20 and ASEAN countries and fell from 40.7 percent of the GDP in 2021 to 37.8 percent in July 2023.
In comparison, Malaysia's debt ratio is currently at 66.3 percent of the GDP, China 77.1 percent, and India 83.1 percent.
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Translator: Imamatul Silfia, Resinta S
Editor: Sri Haryati
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