Indonesia Rebound from Pandemic Faster than 1997-1998 Crisis

TheIndonesia.id - The Indonesian economy recovered faster from the pandemic than the 1997-1998 crisis, which took four years to rebound from, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.

"During COVID-19, within 1.5 years, our economy has been able to return to the (level seen in the) pre-pandemic period. This is something that we should be grateful for and proud of. But this does not mean our task is finished," she said at the Sherpa Track-Finance Track G20: Working Lunch quoted by Antara news agency on Wednesday, December 15, 2021.

The pandemic recovery was driven by the resilience of the financial and business sector, as well as responsive government instruments and policies, she added. On the job creation side, Indonesia has managed to reduce unemployment in the last 12 months from 7.1 percent to 6.5 percent, she noted.

"These are economic recovery steps that can be directly felt by the community," the minister said.

She said she hopes that all these achievements can become Indonesia's capital in 2022 when the country hosts a series of G20 activities.

These activities will cover the financial and central bank levels where the Minister of Finance and the Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) will be responsible for the events, as well as the Sherpa track, which will be coordinated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, she added.

Indrawati also expressed the hope that the G20 Summit in Indonesia would generate optimism and synergy, so Indonesia can not only successfully host the Summit, but also demonstrate its economic recovery and good handling of COVID-19.

"We will certainly support this from the State-Budget (APBN) side as a fiscal instrument and in 2021, we hope the economy will strengthen and the APBN will return to normal so that in 2022, the economic recovery will be accelerated and our APBN will be gradually consolidated," she added.