Government Economic Package Unreal: INDEF

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) said Thursday, September 10, that the new economic policy package, would not be able to respond to urgent economic problems.

INDEF economist Enny Sri Hartati said the package that was launched on Wednesday, would not be able to respond to urgent problems, such as the public’s purchasing power, the depreciation of rupiah and the unemployment.

“There’s nothing wrong with the package. But we want a quick response to urgent problems. The three urgent problems are the public’s purchasing power, the depreciation of rupiah and the unemployment. Those are real, but this package is not the answer to those problems,” Enny told Tempo on Thursday.

According to Enny, the first point of the package should have been focused on restoring public’s purchasing power and stabilizing prices to boost consumption and stimulate the real sectors.

Enny added that the economic policy package did not elaborate how the government would prevent the rupiah exchange from being undervalued. However, Enny realized that the depreciation of rupiah could not be avoided.

“But we can prevent it from being undervalued. That’s why market confidence is very important,” she said.

Enny suggested the market confidence would return if the government managed to address the existing economic problems.

Enny added that the first economic policy package did not explain how deregulation would be able to improve the national industry’s competitiveness. The package, Enny said, should have explained how deregulation could provide incentives for the real sectors to run their wheels. Enny also expressed her concern that the economic package would be merely a discussion in meetings without real implementation.

ANANDA TERESIA