COVID-19 Will Have An Impact On Indonesia's Economy Starting March 2020

Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Susiwijono. (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - Secretary of the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Susiwijono predicts that the impact of the new corona virus or COVID-19 on the Indonesian economy will begin to occur in March 2020.

"The peak of the Corona Virus is January 20-30. So if one to two months plus it means that in mid-March it will be felt, ”he said in Jakarta, Monday, February 24

Susi said this was related to the increasing number of corona virus victims, namely from 11 thousand people infected on January 31 to today reaching 79,166 people infected and 2,444 people died.

"The changes are very fast from the economy and politics, so we need to be very careful in dealing with COVID-19. The development is exponential, "said Susiwijono.

He explained that the corona virus had an impact on the Indonesian economy, one of which was through decreasing state revenue from the import sector because around 74 percent of Indonesia's capital goods for industry or imports still came from China.

Although until now Indonesia still has stocks of capital materials for industry, he said, these supplies are projected to run out within the next one to two months.

"74 percent of our imports are raw material capital goods. Indeed, we still have stock, but normally the cycle of one to two months will be difficult, "he said.

Not only that, the impact of the corona virus outbreak has also occurred through stopping traffic of people, especially for Chinese tourists, which has been carried out since February 5, thereby eliminating state revenue from the tourism sector.

He continued that stopping Chinese tourists from entering Indonesia also had an impact on the traffic of lost money, namely through foreign exchange.

"The main problem will later affect everything, the traffic of goods, people and money. If the traffic of our people stopped as of February 5, there were no people from China, ”he said.

Therefore, Susiwijono said that the government continues to monitor and think about efforts to deal with this, such as through the Work Creation and Taxation Omnibus Law Bill which is being pushed for realization.

"Global is very dynamic, that's why we have to push the Job Creation and Taxation Bill as soon as possible so that we can respond to it. Then what about the incentives for tickets, incentives for spending in the future related to social assistance, village funds, because this is a strategy, "he said.