Don't Be Happy With 7.07 Percent Economic Growth In The Second Quarter, Chatib Basri Predicts A Slower In The Third Quarter Due To PPKM
JAKARTA - Senior economist Chatib Basri predicts that national economic growth will slow down again in the third quarter of this year due to the implementation of level 4 community activity restrictions (PPKM). According to him, the effect on the economy will be visible in the next one to two months.
"In the third quarter, we did slow down a bit. Why? Because the PPKM has been carried out for almost 4 weeks. So this pattern will be very decisive," he said at the 'Economic Dialogue on Economic Performance Quarter II 2021', virtually, Thursday, August 5th.
However, Chatib said, economic performance after the third quarter is projected to increase again, if the government is able to deal with the pandemic quickly. According to him, this year's economic growth will also form a 'W' pattern.
"There are only two solutions. First, to maintain progress, I must be honest in terms of discipline, we may not be as good as Singapore or countries like Vietnam. So if discipline is still lacking, the second option is an accelerated vaccine," he said.
The former Minister of Finance said that the COVID-19 vaccine is important so that group immunity or herd immunity is immediately formed so that people's mobility is not disrupted.
"So once again the key I say is how to speed up the vaccine process so that this momentum can happen," he said.
Regarding Indonesia's economic growth in the second quarter of 7.07 percent, Chatib said this condition is inseparable from the increasing economic performance and the low growth base in the same period last year. In the second quarter of 2020, the Indonesian economy experienced a very deep contraction reaching minus 5.32 percent.
Furthermore, said Chatib, one of the drivers of economic performance in the second quarter of this year was export growth of 31.78 percent.
"So this is a combination of low base and growth that occurred in the second quarter," he said.