Survey: 71 Percent Of Society's Economy Worsens Due To COVID-19

JAKARTA - Saiful Munjani Research and Consulting (SMRC) released the results of a survey regarding economic conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This survey was conducted in the period 18-20 June 2020 to 1,978 respondents.

The survey was conducted by contacting respondents via telephone. These respondents are people who have been surveyed in the previous period. The margin of error in this survey is 2.2 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent.

As a result, as many as 71 percent of respondents thought that their economic condition was worse than before the COVID-19 pandemic, with 62 percent considering it worse and 9 percent considering it much worse.

"However, the current period has changed to a positive direction, on May 20-22, where the percentage of people who call it worse is 83 percent. Now, the bad percentage has decreased," said SMRC Communications Director Ade Armando in a virtual SMRC survey release on Thursday, June 25th.

The rest, 9 percent of the people still think that their economic condition is getting better. Then 1 percent said they didn't know or didn't answer.

In addition, the assessment of national economic conditions is also very bad. About 85% feel that the current national economic situation is worse than last year.

In response to this, the former Minister of Finance Chatib Basri explained that national economic growth since early January has actually declined. In fact, at that time there were no COVID-19 cases in Indonesia.

"Based on BPS data, our economy in the quarter (January-March 2020) was 2.97%. Logically, our economy in January was not affected by COVID-19. Should have normal economic growth of 5 percent," said Chatib.

Chatib's view is that the low national economic growth at the beginning of the year declined due to the drop in the export-import sector. Because at that time the COVID-19 outbreak had occurred in several other countries.

Then, starting in March and April, the new weak economic conditions were felt directly by the public, especially those engaged in the informal sector. This is because the government has made restrictions such as closing business activities and implementing safe distance protection.

"This March reflection has an impact in May-June because of the impact of social distancing which began in March," he said.

Meanwhile, according to him, 9 percent of respondents who admitted that their economic conditions were getting better were people who were doing business in the fields of pharmacy, communication services, and buying and selling online.

"The sector can be relatively good. Because, the basic essence of the economy is the market. Economic activity goes if there is a market. So, all economic activities that require physicality will definitely collapse, except moving to online," explained Chatib.