China Becomes A Section Issue At The ASEAN Finance Minister Meeting This Week

JAKARTA - The second meeting of the ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Government's Meeting (AFMGM) which will be held in Jakarta 22-25 August 2023 will highlight the latest regional issues.

One of the focuses is China's economic development which is starting to show signs of weakening.

This was revealed by the Head of the Regional Policy Center of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) Yogi Rahmayanti.

"The Ministers of Finance and Governors of the Central Bank will discuss the development of the world economy which is currently happening very quickly and unexpectedly. This includes indications of a slowdown in China's economy," he said in a British media in Jakarta on Monday, August 21.

Yogi explained that another issue that became the subject of discussion was the high inflation rate which made interest rates increase.

"This then makes Indonesia in the ASEAN Keketuan take the initiative to organize AFMGM twice which has never happened before," he said.

In previous VOI reports, the issue of China's economic slowdown has also become a concern for the government.

The reason is, China is an important trading partner for Indonesia and also an ASEAN strategic partner in the Region.

Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance, Febrio Kacaribu, revealed that the excesses caused by the slowdown symptoms were still limited.

"We see that there is indeed a risk from China's economic mitigation even though (they) have reopened their economy," said Febrio recently.

Sri Mulyani's subordinate said that after the reopening of productive activities in China, the resulting production rate was not in line with expectations.

"This can also be seen from the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of Chinese manufacturing which is still in the contraction zone," he said.