Jokowi's Staff Give Good News: Indonesia Will Become An Upper-middle-income Country In 2 Years, But...

JAKARTA - President Jokowi's Special Staff for Economic Affairs, Arif Budimanta, said that Indonesia will return to being an upper-middle-income country in the next 1-2 years if economic growth reaches 5-6 percent per year and population growth increases by 1.2 percent per year.

"In the not too distant future, namely in the next 1-2 years, we will immediately return to the upper middle income category (upper middle income countries), although there is an increase in the thresholds (classification) carried out by the World Bank, namely from (gross national income) 4,046 US dollar to 4,096 US dollars," he said as quoted by Antara, Friday, July 9.

Arif said Indonesia in the last report of the World Bank (World Bank) in June 2021, Indonesia was indeed in the category of lower middle income or lower middle income countries.

Previously, in 2019, Indonesia's position had increased to become an upper middle income country. The decline in Indonesia's ranking, said Arif, was due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020.

"Saving the community and health is a priority, implemented with the PSBB and PPKM, so that community mobility is reduced and the rate of economic growth is contracted," he said.

Furthermore, Arif explained that in 2019, when Indonesia became an upper middle-income country, the country's per capita income was US$4,050 or just above the lower limit of the classification set by the World Bank, which was US$4,046.

Therefore, when the Indonesian economy contracted due to the impact of COVID-19, Indonesia's per capita income fell to US$ 3,870. With that position, Indonesia finally returned to the category of lower middle income countries.

"Besides Indonesia, there are several countries that have also dropped from upper middle income to lower middle income, such as Belize, Samoa, and Iran," said Arif.

In fact, said Arif, Iran experienced a fairly deep decline in per capita income, from 5,240 US dollars to 2,870 US dollars.

"Not only that, there are also several countries that have dropped their ranking from high income to upper middle income, such as Mauritius, Panama, Romania," said Arif.