Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Reminds the Importance of ASEAN Economic Resilience to Prevent Negative Impacts on the Global Economy

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati reminded the importance of ASEAN economic resilience to prevent the negative impact of global economic conditions which are still shrouded in uncertainty.

Sri Mulyani when giving a closing speech at the IMF-ASEAN Roundtable meeting in Washington DC, USA, Saturday, October 15 evening local time, said this resilience was important considering the IMF report lowered its projection for the region in 2023 to 4.9 percent.

"In the World Economic Outlook Report (October 2022), the IMF has revised down the growth outlook for ASEAN-5 in 2023 by 0.2 percentage points to 4.9 percent," he said, quoted from Antara, Monday, October 17.

The report states that most countries in the ASEAN region are projected to grow more slowly in 2023 than initially thought due to slowing global demand.

"However, the overall prospect of this region remains relatively better than many other regions," said Sri Mulyani.

To sustain the recovery, ASEAN must continue to prioritize policies that protect household purchasing power amid rising prices, give confidence to the business sector, and aim to build a stronger foundation for medium and long-term development through structural reforms.

Meanwhile, the IMF projects that the Indonesian economy will still grow at around 5 percent in 2023. However, this estimate is slightly below the 5.2 percent projection at the end of 2022.

This forum of Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors of ASEAN member countries in the IMF-ASEAN Roundtable also discussed the efforts of policy makers to balance between suppressing inflation and promoting economic recovery.

In addition, ASEAN's resilience to monetary tightening policies of the United States and the European region, how to use macroprudential policies to deal with monetary normalization policies of the United States and the European region, and burden sharing between fiscal and monetary policies.