Wow! Like A Great Fortune Teller, Chatib Basri Has Predicted 2021 Economic Growth Since 2 Years Ago

JAKARTA - The Minister of Finance for the 2013-2014 period, Chatib Basri, seems to be a little proud. As an economist, he has succeeded in validly proving scientific capacity.

He can see that evidence from the accuracy in predicting Indonesia's economic growth in 2021 long before the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) issued its report today. Chatib said, being an economist is like a fortune-teller.

“An economist is someone who has the ability to make predictions about the future. Then, in a convincing way, he will explain why his prediction is wrong," he said via his Instagram page @chatibbasri on Monday, February 7.

He said that if there is a discrepancy, people still expect economists to make predictions about the next economic growth. He gave a real example when he gave a statement to the media crew in 2020.

"In November 2020, I predict that Indonesia's economic growth in 2021 will only be in the range of 3.5-4 percent or much lower than the government's target of 5 percent. This is a very bold prediction and the risk of being wrong is very large because there is one important variable that determines economic growth cannot be predicted: the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

With a bit of a joking tone, Chatib said that if someone could predict economic growth with two digits after the decimal point, it would be impossible.

"That's why I said that if an economist makes a prediction of economic growth during a pandemic, he only wants to show he has a good sense of humor because it is very possible to be wrong," said the minister under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY).

"Interestingly, on February 7, 2022, BPS came out with a statement that the economic growth rate in 2021 was 3.69 percent, as I predicted. Then am I right? I don't know, obviously I have a sense of humor and good luck in this prediction," concluded Chatib.