Indonesian Government Preparing for the Worst Economic Downturn amidst COVID-19 Turmoil

In line with the IMF’s downward revision of Indonesia’s economic growth forecast for 2020 to 0.5% (compared to the 2019 estimate of 5.0%), the Government of Indonesia announced its bleak expectations for the economy last week.

Indonesia’s Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, stated that up to 5.2 million people could be unemployed this year, with between 1.1 million and 3.78 million Indonesians expected to fall into poverty. According to data from Indonesia’s Manpower Ministry and the Workers Social Security Agency, up to 2.8 million people in Indonesia had lost their jobs in relation to COVID-19 disruptions, as of the 13th of April 2020,

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