Economist Calls Recovery Uneven In All Sectors, How Come?

JAKARTA - An economist for the Monetary Policy and Financial Services Agency of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, David Sumual, said that currently, the recovery is still not evenly distributed across all economic sectors.

"Recovery has occurred, especially for sectors related to commodities outside Java," David said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, July 6.

He said the performance of the commodity sectors such as coal, base metals, minerals, and plantations outside Java can be seen from the increase in textile sales after Lebaran.

"So after Lebaran, sales of textiles usually drop drastically, but in the last few weeks traders in Tanah Abang, for example, said sales were strong enough for buyers from the region," he said.

However, said David, textile exporters are still facing obstacles in the form of global demand that has not yet recovered.

Likewise, the hotel sector is still experiencing unstable increases and decreases after being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that to take advantage of the windfall from rising commodity prices, Indonesia needs to take several steps, one of which is investing in infrastructure and developing Human Resources (HR).

In addition, it is necessary to invest in manufacturing and agricultural production capacity, avoid non-productive spending and ineffective projects that increase imports, and prevent the strengthening of the rupiah which can actually reduce the competitiveness of the domestic manufacturing industry.

"The achievement of structural reforms in the last decade through downstreaming and the Employment Creation Act also needs to be maintained, windfall funds need to be managed technocratically by the Indonesian Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), and diversification of trading partners must continue," he said.