US Tariffs Expand To 70 Countries, BI Beware Of Risks Of Economic Weakening

YOGYAKARTA - Director of the Department of Economic Policy & Monetary (DKEM) Bank Indonesia Juli Budi Winantya said that there are many global dynamics that are currently happening, especially regarding the tariff policy imposed by the United States initially covering only 44 countries. However, in recent developments, it has expanded to 70 countries.

He said that this development shows that the impact of tariffs varies in each country, where there are several countries experiencing tariff increases, while other countries have actually decreased.

July gave an example, as in India, which previously was subject to a tariff of 25 percent, now the tariff has increased to 50 percent, as well as Switzerland, which rates rose from 31 percent to 39 percent.

"So these countries, the main countries that experienced an increase in tariffs compared to the previous announcement," he said in BI policy activities to Maintain Stability and Encourage Growth, Friday, August 22.

On the other hand, he said that there were also several countries that experienced a decline in tariffs, including Indonesia, from 32 percent to 19 percent.

Next are other major countries that have also experienced a decline, such as countries in Europe whose rates fell from 50 percent to 15 percent, and China from 145 percent to 41 percent, this shows that the impact of tariff policies varies between countries.

According to him, the development of global tariffs poses a risk of weakening the world economy which is greater than previously estimated so that Bank Indonesia has revised the projected economic growth of a number of countries.

He gave an example, for example, the economic growth of the United States was revised to fall from 2.1 percent to 2.0 percent, while India, which was subject to a 50 percent increase in tariffs, was revised from 6.6 percent to 6.5 percent.

On the other hand, July said that countries experiencing tariff reductions and economically still relatively strong are expected to experience higher growth.

He gave an example, such as the economic growth of the European region being revised to increase from 0.9 percent to 1 percent, China from 4.3 percent to 4.6 percent, and Japan from 0.8 percent to 1 percent.

According to him, the current development of global tariff policies has the potential to weaken world economic growth from previously projected at 3 percent.