VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo set the target for Indonesian economic growth around 5.0 upto 5.5 percent by 2022. The target was stated by the President in his annual address on the 2022 State Budget Draft and Financial Note during the House of Representatives' Plenary Session 2021-2022 at the parliament office in Jakarta, Monday (16/8).

President Joko Widodo affirmed that the economic growth target estimation considered the dynamics of Covid-19 pandemic development.

Some assumptions had been prepared by the government to achieve the target. The main one is preparing the 2,708.7 trillion rupiahs for the 2022 State Budget. It consists of 1,938.3 trillion rupiahs for the central government budget, 770 trillion rupiahs for regional transfer and village fund, 255.3 trillion rupiahs for health, 427.5 trillion rupiahs for social security, 541.7 trillion rupiahs for education. The government will also continue the infrastructure projects worth 384.8 trillion rupiahs for next year.

President Joko Widod hoped the state budget could support achieving the development target in 2022. The targets are open unemployment index around 5.5% - 6.3% and poverty index 8.5% - 9.0% that is focused on decreasing extreme poverty.

The government also set the target for state revenue upto 1,840.7 trillion rupiahs. It includes 1,506.9 trillion rupiahs tax revenue and 333.2 trillion rupiahs non-tax revenue. Meanwhile, the deficit was predicted to be around 4.85% from the Gross Domestic Product or around 868 trillion rupiahs.

Economy expert from the University of Indonesia, Teuku Riefky said that the economic growth target above five percent in 2022 is quite realistic if the Covid-19 pandemic would not have a new and worse variant next year. Therefore, Riefky recommended that the government must still focus on handling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Underprivileged and vulnerable people's purchasing power must also be maintained until the pandemic is handled. He added that the government will then focus on economic recovery to boost purchasing power, such as through stimulus to business sectors both in taxation and other forms.