Gov’t Takes All Measures to Restore Economy: Finance Minister

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati during CNBC Debate on the Global Economy, Thursday, (15/10) Photo by: Ministry of Finance

The Government continues to make fiscal and monetary policies as well as other policies to restore the national economy during COVID-19 pandemic, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said.

“We are aware that we need extraordinary measures such as fiscal deficit and monetary policies. But we must not rely solely on the two instruments, namely fiscal and monetary policies. We need to work very hard,” the minister said during CNBC Debate on the Global Economy, part of events at the 2020 IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meeting, Thursday (15/10).

Sri said that the measures taken by the Government to widen the fiscal deficit by increasing spending on health, social protection, MSMEs, corporations and financial sector stability are aimed at saving the people’s lives.

The Minister also praised the House of Representatives (DPR) for its support in approving various changes related to the fiscal deficit and economic recovery program (PEN). She expressed her optimism that the momentum for economic recovery in the third quarter of 2020 will continue after a very deep contraction.

Regarding the cooperation between the Government and Bank Indonesia through burden sharing, the Minister said that the measure is taken very carefully. The cooperation, she added, required a lot of communication to convince the public, bondholders and rating agencies that the independence of Bank Indonesia as the Central Bank was not affected.

“This is an unprecedented intervention whereby Bank Indonesia can buy Government bonds on the primary market without giving the impression that we are threatening the independence of the Central Bank. We really need frequent communication in designing the right policy,” the Minister said. (Ministry of Finance/UN)

Translated by: Ridwan Ibadurrohman
Reviewed by: Mia Medyana