OJK: The Indonesian Economy Is Proven To Be Strong In Face Of Crisis

Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Mahendra Siregar. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Mahendra Siregar stated that the Indonesian economy has indeed proven strong in dealing with crises, but remains alert to various global risks in the future. "How do we maintain this momentum of economic growth while at the same time anticipating and alert to risks of worsening the world economy," he said during the Capital Market Summit & Expo 2022 in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Thursday, October 13. Mahendra said that Indonesia's economic condition was fully recovered from the impact of the pandemic because the national gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2022 had returned to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level. In fact, if you look at the health conditions of the financial services industry, both banking, capital markets and the non-bank financial industry, it is clear that their condition has recovered and is much healthier so that they are ready to maintain and oversee the continuation of Indonesia's economic growth. What's more, even though global conditions show the situation continues to deteriorate, there is no estimate to suggest that Indonesia's economic growth will be smaller than expected by five percent. "Finally, what we heard from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) even though it showed global economic growth had decreased, we still estimated that Indonesia's economic growth was five percent," he said. According to Mahendra, this achievement cannot be separated from the economic management, both macro, fiscal, and monetary management, for the past few years has been done well. However, he ensured that Indonesia was still anticipating, being vigilant, and alert for the worsening conditions that occurred at the global level by taking concrete steps. Mahendra admitted that his party is ready to do a stress test on the financial services industry, namely testing endurance to determine critical limits in a system. This stress test is carried out by the financial services sector to find out, understand and calculate all existing risks. He said that this effort would make the Indonesian economy, including the financial services industry, more prepared and alert to the potential and risk of transmission that would occur, namely the worsening of the global economy. Mahendra emphasized that there was no reason for Indonesia not to be confident because this recovery condition put Indonesia's position in a good situation in dealing with risks. "While we are making these efforts, we continue to increase our focus on Indonesia's economic growth," he said.