VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for the ASEAN Economic Community, Satvinder Singh is optimistic that he can maintain the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023 at 5 percent. According to him, the percentage is not much different from the target in 2022.

"I think it's more important that in 2022 you will see our two ASEAN (India-ASEAN-ed) regions will grow positive growth of 5 percent for this year. Next year, ASEAN will see another 5 percent growth of our GDP,” said Satvinder at an event organized by the India Mission to ASEAN, Sunday (9/10/2022) in Jakarta.

Several things are factors that support ASEAN's economic growth, which is able to survive 5 percent, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, in the last two years, the pandemic has urged us to move faster through digitization.

“So, digital growth in ASEAN countries contributes significantly to the growth we are seeing today. Second, our population is young, and our population is very active, says Satvinder.

"Cities want to grow, we want to improve lives. The government is very actively moving towards investment in infrastructure, to ensure that our economic growth is steady," he said.

Satvinder added that the removal of travel restrictions provided an opportunity for the resumption of business travel among ASEAN countries.

“You can see the travel business is starting, business activity is back again, and tourism is coming back to our area. So, I believe that despite the challenges we are experiencing today, we are on a very good path to recovery."

In July 2022, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) revised the economic growth of 6 ASEAN countries, in the Asian Development Outlook Supplement report. ADB raised its economic projections for the 6 ASEAN countries to 5 percent, whereas last April's projection was 4.9 percent.

In its release, ADB noted that the economic improvement in Southeast Asia was supported by increasing domestic demand due to the easing of social activities in several economic areas. ADB estimates that the Indonesian economy in 2022 will grow to 5.2 percent from the previous estimate of 5 percent.

ADB also forecasts Southeast Asia's GDP growth in 2023 at 5.2 percent. And, significantly raised Southeast Asia's inflation forecast for 2022 from 3.7 percent to 4.7 percent. Next year's inflation was revised up from 3.1 percent to 3.4 percent. (RRI)