Cabinet Secretariat Holds FGD on 2022 Economic Outlook

Assistant to Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Macroeconomics, Development Planning, and Business Climate Development Roby Arya Brata at the 2022 Economic Outlook Focus Group Discussion (FGD) under the theme ‘Maintaining Momentum of Growth’, Thursday (25/11) (Photo by: PR/Fitri)

Cabinet Secretariat Thursday (25/11) held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) to discuss the 2022 Economic Outlook.

The hybrid meeting aims to assess and evaluate macroeconomic achievements as well as to provide an outlook on the Indonesian economy in 2022.

“On the purpose and objective of today’s discussion or FGD, we want to conduct an assessment and evaluation of macroeconomic achievements. These are what we look forward to from the speakers. And, what is the outlook for the future, what are the recommendations,” said Assistant to Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Macroeconomics, Development Planning, and Business Climate Development Roby Arya Brata during the FGD, adopting the theme ‘Maintaining Momentum of Growth’.

The Government, Roby stated, continues to strive to encourage and maintain the momentum of growth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Adaptations in economic sector and government policies are continuously being carried out.

“One of the biggest sources of our economic growth is net exports and investments. Previously, we did import frequently but later because of rising commodity prices, the contribution of exports is also greater,” he added.

On the performance of the 2021 State Budget, Roby revealed that there are signs of economic improvement at the end of 2021. This is reflected in the improvement in tax revenue trends which is in line with the country’s economy that is starting to bounce back.

“The state spending continues to be encouraged to stimulate the national economy and maintain the momentum of growth,” he said.

Roby added that government spending, such as for COVID-19 handling, providing social assistance, and developing infrastructure are the drivers of Indonesia’s economic growth.

“State income until October 2021 continues the upward trend, even growing by 18.2 percent and has reached 86.6 percent of the target. This is in line with the improvement in economic recovery,” he said.

Seeing various existing economic indicators, Roby also expressed his confidence that in 2022 the Indonesian economy will be able to grow. “The state revenue outlook is estimated to grow by 16 percent. These are enough signals to give us optimism,” he said.

The discussion, which is regularly held at the end of the year, was attended by around 70 people, both offline and online. Some of the speakers were Senior Economic Researcher at the Institute of Strategic Studies Eric Alexander Sugandi, Deputy CEO of Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) Arief Budiman, Head of Business Climate and Global Value Chain Research Group at LPEM FEB UI Mohamad Dian Revindo, and Chief Economist at Bank Tabungan Negara Winang Budoyo. (AIT/UN) (FI/LW)