KPC PEN: If The Government Does Not Help, Indonesia Will Experience A Deep And Long Recession

Illustrated. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Executive Secretary I of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN) Raden Pardede said that the government is currently really serious in handling the COVID-19 case. He said, this intervention from the health side needs to be carried out optimally, if it is handled half-heartedly, it is not impossible for Indonesia to experience a second wave.

If Indonesia experiences the second wave of COVID-19 and the government is not serious about intervening in control of the health sector, the impact will be very fatal. According to Raden, it could cause a prolonged economic recession.

As is well known, currently Indonesia has technically entered the brink of recession. This is because Indonesia's economic growth contracted for two consecutive quarters, namely at minus 5.32 percent in the second quarter and minus 3.49 percent in the third quarter.

"If there is a very deep tightening without government intervention, our recession will be very deep and long enough," he said, during a discussion on Maintaining the National Economic Recovery Momentum virtually, in Jakarta, Thursday, December 17.

Therefore, said Raden, the government intervened in terms of overcoming expenditure efforts at the community level. In particular, he said, spending was from the lower middle group.

"They can still live, shopping for their essential items. That's what we do, so we create a social safety net. We also help the real sector safety net, especially for MSMEs. This is the second strategy the government has implemented," he said.

According to Raden, all government interventions are efforts to survive and recover from the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that currently Indonesia had passed its worst condition and was trying to recover.

"It's still slow, we have to admit it and this will happen until vaccination. We have to be patient, and the world is experiencing all of this. So we are experiencing this problem, we are facing this pandemic until next year with the hope that we can vaccinate nearly 70 percent of the population. then our group immunity becomes strong. Only after that can we return to normal. This means we can carry out our activities as before, "he explained.