There Is Always An Optimistic Tone From The Coordinating Minister For Airlangga In The Midst Of The PSBB Implementation

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

JAKARTA - The government has officially imposed restrictions on activities on the islands of Java and Bali as an effort to spread the COVID-19 case. The restrictions will start from 11 to 25 January 2021. Even though there are restrictions on community mobilization, the government is optimistic that the economy will continue to grow.

"First, for the first quarter it has only been 7 days. Of course we will see a balance between health and socio-economy," said Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, in a virtual press conference, Thursday, January 7.

Several indicators have encouraged the government to be optimistic that the country's economic movement will continue to grow despite the PSBB, including the Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) which strengthened to the level of 6,128.

In the morning trading session on Wednesday, January 6, the JCI had dropped, but again rose after the government explained the new PSBB policy.

Meanwhile, the rupiah exchange rate against the dollar at 09.04 WIB also strengthened 16 points or 0.12 percent. The rupiah against the US dollar was at Rp13,880.

One of the reasons for the strengthening of the rupiah was the sentiment at the meeting of the Central Bank of the United States (US) which will discuss maintaining interest rates and providing stimulus.

"The rupiah strengthened from (Wednesday) yesterday, so of course this is also a proxy that shows the market and financial sector's confidence. This is what we must protect," he said.

Airlangga said, Indonesia's Manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) in December 2020 also recorded an increase at the level of 51.3 percent. On the other hand, prices for a number of commodities also experienced improvement.

"With these beliefs, we are quite optimistic. The projection until the end of the year is in the range of 5 percent," he said.

The chairman of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC-PEN) emphasized that the tightening of the PSBB in a number of districts / cities in Indonesia was carried out as an intermediate and long-term step for the domestic economy.

According to Airlangga, the policy will still pay attention to the socio-economic conditions in the community.

"So it is not a daily step. This government pays attention to people's needs. Of course the main thing is health. The two governments are present both in the social and economic sectors of the community. We are still optimistic and we will see in the first quarter later," he said.