The Government Aims For The Sharia Economy To Be A New Source Of Growth, Sri Mulyani's Subordinates: This Has Great Potential, Our Muslim Population Is Large

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) is said to continue to consistently develop the sharia economy as a new source of growth during the current pandemic.

Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance Febrio Kacaribu said the Islamic economy, especially in the Islamic finance segment, was considered quite productive, inclusive, and sustainable, as well as encouraging structural reforms through providing access to financing for the real sector.

"Indonesia sits on a huge potential for Islamic finance, this is due to the high population of Indonesian Muslims and the widespread trend of digitization in Indonesia", he said in an official statement, Wednesday, August 25.

According to Febrio, Islamic economics and finance have unique characteristics that give them a strategic role in economic recovery and future structural reforms.

This is because of its role in encouraging the equitable distribution of community welfare, sustainable economy, and increasing access to financing such as through zakat, infaq, waqf, Green Sukuk innovation, as well as MSME financing.

More than that, he continued, Islamic finance has great potential and has grown beyond the conventional financial market in the last decade.

"The government continues to strive to formulate accommodative policies so that the potential of sharia in Indonesia can be realized early", he said.

Febrio added that the issue of recovery at the global level is in line with the government's focus on accelerating recovery and strengthening reforms.

"The spirit of economic recovery is in line with the topics that Indonesia will bring to the G20 Presidency in 2022", he stressed.

The State Global Islamic Economic Report 2020-2021, as reported by Antara Wednesday, June 9, stated that the consumption level of the world's Muslim community reached USD 2.02 trillion in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, fashion, travel, and media sectors, to halal recreation.

Meanwhile, based on data released by the World Population Review, there are around 1.9 billion Muslims in the world, with 229 million of them in Indonesia.

The 229 million people represent 87.2 percent of Indonesia's population of 276.3 million or 12.7 percent of the world's Muslim population.