Finance Minister: Indonesia’s Economic Performance Remains Positive towards Year-End
Indonesia’s economic performance has remained relatively good as of the end of November this year, according to Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.
It is evident as the country’s trade balance has continued to record a surplus that reached US$5.16 billion. Cumulatively from January to November this year, the surplus amounted to US$50.59 billion, which is larger than last year’s.
“This is a positive aspect of our economy. The external sector contributes to our growth with more exports than imports. Nevertheless, we remain vigilant over global [economic] development, which tends to weaken,” Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani said, quoted from the official website of Ministry of Finance, Tuesday (12/20).
Other indicators demonstrating Indonesia’s sound and robust economy are consumer confidence index, retail sales index, car retail sales index, Mandiri spending index, electricity consumption, and motorcycle sales that continue to increase and expand.
“It means that middle-class households still have healthy purchasing power and consumption will, which will support our economic growth, especially in the fourth quarter. In this situation, our economic growth in 2022 will remain stable in the fourth quarter,” she said.
However, Sri Mulyani emphasized the importance to remain vigilant over next year’s economic trend as the global economic turmoil indirectly influences Indonesia’s economic performance.
“The global environment will affect our exports. Domestically, we still have sources of economic growth that we must and will maintain, such as consumption, investment, and government spending,” she said, adding that the country’s inflation rate is relatively good at 5.4 percent, sustained by the prices of volatile food commodities that consistently decrease.
“This is an achievement because when the world is facing rising food and energy prices, we can still control them by managing supplies and distributions for various national food and energy demands,” she said.
In the meantime, Indonesia’s government bonds are in a favorable situation despite capital outflow.
“It shows that Indonesia can still maintain competitiveness in terms of cost of fund because the State Budget continues to give credible and strong signal and our macro policies are consistent and credible. As a result, our government bond performance is much better than that of other countries,” she said.
The Minister also pointed out that the country’s positive economic performance is consistent with the assessment of global ranking institutions, such as Fitch Ratings that affirmed Indonesia at BBB category with a stable outlook.
“When the outlook of all countries worldwide is negative or downgraded, rating institutions gave us a stable rating. This is very remarkable,” she remarked. (UN) (DH/MUR)