The Economy Grows High But Sri Mulyani Is Even Was-Was, What's Up, Mom?

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (Photo: Capture the screen of the Ministry of Finance's Youtube)

JAKARTA Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani welcomed Indonesia's economic growth in the first quarter of 2023 which managed to penetrate 5.03 percent year on year (yoy). According to him, this achievement exceeded the government's expectations for the first three months of this year.

In line with this, the Minister of Finance chose not to be complacent with the positive results obtained following conditions that were 'not doing well'.

"Global economic performance is one of the risks that must be watched out for because we are currently in a weakened cycle, while we (Indonesia) are still strengthening and this must be maintained," he said at a press conference of the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK) in Jakarta, Monday, May 8.

The Minister of Finance explained that the weakening of the world economy is certain to provide its own facilities for the domestic economy.

"Our exports will later be affected, commodity numbers will also be affected, imports will also be affected. Then, investment will definitely have an effect. These things will be linked to the risk of both, namely inflation. Even though in developed countries it has started to decline, it still tends to be at the top level," he said.

According to the Minister of Finance, based on recent meetings with world economic leaders, it was found that the central bank of developed countries is still worried about the general inflation rate and core inflation that has not sloped to normal levels.

"That means they will still set high interest rates and make the potential for weakening the world economy will still occur in the next one or two quarters," he said.

On this occasion, the state treasurer also said that the outlook for world economic growth this year is estimated to be only 2.8 percent from the previous 3.4 percent in 2022.

Anomaly actually occurs in Indonesia with an upward revision from 4.8 percent to 5.0 percent in 2023. This positive signal continues with an estimated 5.1 percent for 2024. This is the prediction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) version.

Meanwhile, the government itself set the economic growth rate in 2023 at 4.5 percent to 5.3 percent with the potential for upward bias.