Faisal Basri's Shocking Statement For Indonesia: Actually Economic Growth Has Slowed Before The COVID-19 Pandemic

Indef's senior economist, Faisal Basri. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - University of Indonesia (UI) senior economist Faisal Basri said that Indonesia's economic growth had slowed down even before the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, he predicts that the national economy will only be able to grow 4.5 percent.

"Before there was a pandemic, Indonesia's economy had weakened, so from 8 percent then down to 7 percent, then to 5 in the first Pak Jokowi era and in the second Pak Jokowi era, it was about below 5 percent, 4.5 is the most optimistic," he said in a statement. virtual discussion, Wednesday, October 13.

Faisal said the government was actually happy when the national economy reached 7.07 percent in the second quarter of 2021. Even though according to him, Indonesia's recovery speed was slow.

Based on the data presented by Faisal, Indonesia's recovery speed is below Thailand, Germany, USA, China, Singapore, Turkey, Philippines, India, Malaysia, Italy and France. However, said Faisal, Indonesia is not in the lowest position. He said Indonesia was still slightly ahead of Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.

According to Faisal, this needs to be answered by the government as to why Indonesia's economic growth trend is slowing. In fact, other countries experienced a very fast recovery trend after COVID-19.

"So this is what we have to answer, there is no pandemic, don't blame the pandemic. There is something wrong with us," he said.

Faisal's prediction is reinforced by data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Where the IMF has just revised its prediction for Indonesia's economic growth in 2021.

"Except for Indonesia. If Indonesia is old, this year's economic growth has only been revised by the IMF to only 3.2 percent, far below the 5 percent condition before the pandemic," he said.

Even though the growth is long, Faisal admits that currently the Indonesian economy is already leading to recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is supported by the pandemic that has begun to be controlled in the country.

"White Indonesia is heading towards recovery. Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and a little bit of Japan have to be defended, even though we still have a low score of 43 out of 50 countries. This is according to the economic magazine as of October," he said.