VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that to strengthen the economy, structural reforms need to be taken because it is not enough to rely on the state budget and monetary policy.

"The biggest homework for the economy is structural reforms because it is impossible to manage the economy only depending on macro, fiscal and monetary policies," Sri Mulyani said in a webinar of the National Symposium on State Finance (SNKN) in Jakarta, Wednesday.

According to her, the government can not only rely on widening the fiscal deficit, increasing spending, or providing tax incentives.

Likewise, the central bank has also lowered the benchmark interest rate, thus increasing banking liquidity. Improvement in the real sector, he said, also needs to be done because it is the foundation of the economic structure.

She continued, with Indonesia's large demographics and large young population job seekers are increasing, especially with COVID-19 increasing the unemployment rate.

For that, the government must focus on creating job opportunities while ensuring that the environment for doing business must also be good.

"This does not mean that we take sides with the capitalists and do not side with the people. We have the same needs, how can the environment do business while the people can do business cheaply, easily and surely," she added.

One step is taken, he said, was through the Omnibus Job Creation to answer economic challenges, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Facing extraordinary situations such as the pandemic, she continued, the government used the state budget as an instrument to achieve the goal of a state, namely a just, prosperous, and sustainable society.

However, the APBN also needs to be maintained gradually, so it remains a solution, not a source of problems.

The trick, she said, was to gradually reduce the state budget deficit arising from government spending in dealing with the pandemic.

"Not always at a sudden pace because if we straighten the state budget out, the economy may become fragile again. We always looking for a formulation on how to gradually consolidate and restore, while the economy is strengthened," she said. (Antaranews)