Bappenas Talks of Nation's Challenges in Returning to Upper-Middle Income Status
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30 August 2021 20:28 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Suharso Monoarfa, the Minister of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Head, said Indonesia would face difficulties to return to being an upper-middle income country if it continues its business as usual.
“As a result of the crisis, the realization and trajectory of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita will surely be corrected, and if we continue doing business as usual, the pressure to return to the upper-middle income status will be deeper,” said Suharso in a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Finance Commission, Monday, August 30.
He opined that without high economic growth, it would be difficult for Indonesia to return to pre-COVID-19 conditions as in 2019. Thus, next year’s growth target was set a bit high at around 5.2-5.8 percent, higher than the macroeconomic assumptions at 5.0 to 5.5 percent.
The figures are also higher than the 2020 and 2021 outlooks. In 2020, the country’s economy contracted by 2.07 percent, while this year’s outlook for overall economic growth was in the neighborhood of 3.5 to 4.3 percent, he explained.
In this basis, Suharso argued that despite focusing on the pandemic handling, the government must take proper intervention policies to boost the country’s economic development.
“We need a balance of macro policies, stabilization and economic growth, as well as long-term targets,” Suharso added.
The World Bank previously downgraded Indonesia from the upper-middle income status in 2019 to the lower-middle income status in 2020 following the country’s dropping gross national income per capita from US$4,050 in 2019 to US$3,870 in 2020.
Read: Bappenas: Economic Growth Must Be Six Percent to Escape Middle-Income Trap
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