VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 8 - The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) economic studies institute assesses that the national economy is showing improvement but has not been optimal.

"There are improvements, but not optimal. We estimate that our economy is still minus in the first quarter, it is estimated to be minus 1 percent," said Executive Director of Indef, Tauhid Ahmad, Sunday (7/2/2021).

According to him, one of the factors holding back economic growth is low household consumption.

Therefore, he suggested that there should be another breakthrough to encourage household consumption so that the national economic recovery can be felt more.

In addition, he continued, the PEN program for MSMEs and corporations must also be reviewed so that it is more targeted so that it can accelerate national economic growth, considering that the PEN program in 2020 for this sector tends to be more used to cover losses suffered by business actors.

The PEN program for MSMEs amounted to IDR112.44 trillion and for corporations IDR60.73 trillion in 2020 during 2020.

"For 2021 it also has the same principles in the use of the PEN program. This condition will make it difficult to become a driving force for economic recovery. In the future there must be other breakthroughs to accelerate national economic recovery," he explained.

On the same occasion, economist Indef M Rizal Taufikurrahman said that the synergy and harmonization between fiscal and monetary policies as well as the policy mix needs to be improved.

"Monitoring the management of policies that is more measured will have an impact on improving national economic growth in 2021," he added. (RRI)