The World Bank Urges Indonesia to Devise Measures to Maintain Financial Market Confidence

The World Bank urged the Government of Indonesia to establish a sound fiscal strategy to flatten the debt curve and maintain financial market confidence as debt mounts amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Ralph van Doorn, World Bank Senior Economist for Indonesia, the Debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio was expected to increase to 37% in 2020 from 29.8% in 2019 due to increased borrowings to manage the widening budget deficit, the economic downturn and the depreciation of the IDR. Van Doorn added that the Government needed to provide assurances regarding its fiscal strategy in order to increase revenues to 2018 levels at minimum, in order to reduce the level of debt, as the nation risked losing market confidence du...