Being In A Recession Period, This Is Indonesia's Economic Condition According To Airlangga Hartarto

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs)

JAKARTA - Indonesia has officially entered into a rare recession. This is because the country's economic growth is minus two consecutive quarters, namely negative 5.32 percent in the second quarter and 3.49 percent in the third quarter. How about the fourth quarter?

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said the government projects that in the last quarter of this year the Indonesian economy will still be in a negative state. Even so, it is possible to grow positively.

"If we look at the impact (of the COVID-19 pandemic) on Indonesia's economic growth, it contracted 5.32 percent in the second quarter. However, in the third quarter there was a positive trend, minus 3.49 percent and we hope that in the fourth quarter it will be between minus 1.6-1. , 7 percent to 0.6 percent positive, "he said, in a webinar, Tuesday, November 17.

Airlangga said government consumption was the driver for the increase in the third quarter, namely 9.8 percent. Meanwhile, various other sectors are relatively low. This can also help the economy in the fourth quarter.

Furthermore, he said, several sectors that boosted growth were real estate to health services.

"If we look at the leveraging sector, starting from real estate, agriculture, education, water utilities, information and communication, and health services, which are levers so that our economy can grow," he said.

Previously, economist Chatib Basri predicted that Indonesia's economy would recover from 2022. However, this estimate is strongly influenced by how the government can overcome the problem of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

"My guess is that if we make a simple calculation about vaccines and various kinds of our economy, it will normalize in 2022. That is where we can talk about expansion, private investment and all kinds," he said, in a virtual discussion, Monday, November 9.

Currently, said Chatib, the Indonesian economy is still in a survival phase, even though economic growth has started to show improvement from the second quarter which contracted 5.32 percent to 3.49 percent contraction in the third quarter of 2020.

Furthermore, Chatib said, when the pandemic has been resolved, only then can we talk about recovery. At present, there is no sign that the Indonesian economy is heading for recovery.