Indonesian economy to contract 0.49 per cent this year: Minister

JAKARTA, Aug 12, 2020, ANTARA. Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has predicted the Indonesian economy will contract 0.49 percent this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, ANTARA reported.

“Hopefully, it (the economy) will improve in the third quarter. It is predicted to grow minus two or minus one percent. But, we hope it will grow positively,” he said while launching the coalition of joint action against corruption (CAC) at an online event here on Tuesday.

The Indonesian economy is expected to contract 1 percent in the third quarter of 2020 and to grow 1.38 percent in the fourth quarter of this year, he said adding, overall, the economy is expected to contract 0.49 percent this year.

He said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Indonesian economy has been relatively less severe than other countries.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) had announced earlier that the Indonesian economy contracted 5.32 percent in the second quarter of 2020 from 2.97 percent in the previous quarter.

Several other countries also saw their economies fall deeper into a decline in the second quarter.

Hartarto said the US economy contracted 9.5 percent, the British economy 19.9 percent, and the French economy 19 percent in the second quarter. In fact, the last two countries suffered a recession, he remarked.