Destry Damayanti: Indonesia Must Stay Alert, But Optimist In Facing Global Economic Disappointments

Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia Destry Damayanti. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Destry Damayanti said Indonesia must remain vigilant but optimistic in the face of global economic turmoil in the future. "We are vigilant because the turmoil, volatility, or pressure that occurs in the global economy will at least affect the Indonesian economy," said Destry at the launch of the Financial Stability Study Book No. 39 September 2022, quoted from Antara, Friday, October 21. Even so, he stressed that Indonesia must remain optimistic because Indonesia has a fairly varied and solid economic carrying capacity, plus Indonesia has a strong domestic economy, both supported by public consumption and other extraordinary economic potentials. So far, Indonesia is still in a fairly good position, where the economy in the second quarter of 2022 can still grow above 5 percent and it is estimated that throughout 2022 it will grow between 4.5 percent to 5.3 percent. Economic growth in the second quarter of 2022 is strongly supported by strong economic growth, namely from consumption, investment, and exports, all of which support economic improvement. Although Indonesia has also experienced an increase in inflation, Destry said domestic inflation in September 2022 will increase slightly but is still within the tolerance limit, which is 5.95 percent year-on-year (yoy). "One of the biggest contributors to inflation is inflation in the food sector or volatile food, which in the last two months has started to show signs of a decline," he said. Therefore, he emphasized that policy synergies in dealing with economic stability and encouraging economic recovery are highly expected, especially for handling inflation. The government, apart from having a Central Inflation Control Team and a Regional Inflation Control Team (TPIP and TPID), has also held a National Movement for Food Inflation Control (GNPIP) which in the last two months has been carried out in the regions so that food inflation has declined slowly.