TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia remains confident that this year's economic growth would be on target despite the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, the Omicron. The Finance Ministry's first deputy of macroeconomics and finance, Iskandar Simorangkir, believes that by year-end the national growth rate would be around 3.7 to 4.0 percent.

"The Omicron is indeed more contagious, but if we look at the WHO's data, the fatality rate is very low. This means that vaccine rollouts must continue to be accelerated to prevent the impact of the Omicron and other COVID-19 virus variants," Iskandar said when contacted on Monday, November 29.

Iskandar said that the government has mitigated a number of risks of the Omicron variant's entry. Indonesia has closed its borders to foreigners coming from African nations and other countries where the variant has been identified.

The government, he said, also strives to raise the vaccination rate until the end of this year to maintain the momentum of economic recovery.

According to Iskandar, in October and November there have been many positive indicators from numerous economic sectors. The purchasing managers index (PMI) has increased and reached a record-high of 57.2 in October.

"Exports and imports in October 2021 were at a surplus," he said.

Indonesia also recorded an increase in retail transactions, which is expected to continue throughout the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Read: Bank Indonesia Forecasts 5.5% GDP Growth in 2022

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