Chairul Tanjung: COVID-19 Makes Rich People Richer, The Poor Gets Poorer

Chairul Tanjung conglomerate. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 pandemic has put pressure on the world economy. Including the Indonesian economy, where growth has contracted for three consecutive quarters in 2020. This has an impact on increasing inequality that is widening.

CT Corp Founder and Chairman Chairul Tanjung (CT) said 2020 was the toughest year for the world, including Indonesia. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic has depressed everyone, not only the health and economic sectors.

Furthermore, said the man who is familiarly called CT, economic growth in 2020 is bad due to experiencing intense pressure, where unemployment, poverty has increased, capital inflow, NPL, GDP to rupiah in March was IDR 16.550, which was the lowest since the 1998 crisis.

Not only that, according to CT, the pandemic also has other effects besides the crisis, namely making the gap between rich and poor people wider.

"It turns out that COVID-19 not only causes a crisis but also causes the gap between rich and poor to widen", he said, during the CNBC Outlook 2021 program, Thursday, February 25.

That is, said CT, during this pandemic the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Where the rich have increased their wealth, one of which is the sharp decline in stock value. Buying stocks when they fell is very profitable because the process of recovering the value of the shares is now much bigger than the decline.

"Meanwhile, the poor are getting poorer and it will take 10 years to return to their pre-COVID-19 status. We cannot give up. We have to see what steps for recovery should be taken", he said.

For your information, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted that the level of expenditure inequality for the rich and poor in Indonesia as measured by the Gini ratio reached 0.385 in September 2020. This figure has decreased by 0.004 points when compared to the March 2020 Gini Ratio of 0.381.

However, this figure also increased by 0.005 points compared to the September 2019 Gini ratio of 0.380.

Head of BPS, Suhariyanto, said the Gini ratio in urban areas in September 2020 was recorded at 0.399. This figure is an increase compared to the Gini ratio in March 2020 which was 0.393 and the Gini ratio in September 2019 which was 0.391.

Meanwhile, the Gini ratio in rural areas in September 2020 was recorded at 0.319. This note is an increase compared to the Gini ratio in March 2020 which was 0.317 and the Gini ratio in September 2019 which was 0.315.

BPS also noted that the number of poor people in Indonesia reached 27.55 million people in September 2020, or equivalent to 10.19 percent of the total population in Indonesia. This figure is up 1.13 million people compared to the position in March 2020, also an increase of 2.76 people compared to September 2019.

Suhariyanto said, of this number, the largest percentage of poor people are in the Maluku and Papua Islands. This region provided the highest contribution of around 20.65 percent of the total poverty total in September 2020.