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Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto (ANTARA)

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto has said Indonesia's economy has started to move positively again after being badly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic since early March 2020.

"We see that in the third and fourth periods, there has been a positive reversal in which the Purchasing Managers Index or PMI has increased to nearly 50 from 46.9," Airlangga Hartarto said while speaking during a national campaign on face mask wearing held at GBK main stadium, Senayan, Jakarta, on Sunday.

"We can see that our trade has also enjoyed a surplus of over 3 billion US dollars and a year to date of around 8 billion US dollars. And of course these have contributed to the state's reserves," he said, adding that in the capital market, a number of sectors also began to grow and were expected to lead to the domestic economic recovery.

After experiencing the lowest point on April 1, 2020, many sectors now started to grow, such the sector of industry went up 31.85 percent, chemical industry 31 percent, agriculture 28 percent, finance 20 percent, mining 20 percent, consumer goods 18, 5 percent, infrastructure 11.5 percent, and trade 6.7 percent, the coordinating minister pointed out.

"From an economic point of view, the index in the capital market specifically in several sectors, including banking, has increased at a range of 20 to 30 percent," he said.

In addition to, motor vehicle sales, that were previously minus 80 percent, now started to improve to minus 40 percent.

"The government hopes that this trend can be maintained, but we first must take care of the health sector. As the vaccine is still being developed, hence wearing a mask is the main key to our economic recovery," he said.

He emphasized that the national economic recovery during this pandemic must start from the discipline of the community in wearing face masks.

The National Face Mask Campaign Movement was organized by the Committee for the COVID-19 Handling and the National Economic Recovery (PC-PEN) chaired by Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto.

A total of 22,500 face masks from the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and 20,000 face masks from the Health Ministry were distributed to people exercising in the GBK area during the campaign.

The government will later also organize campaigns to promote hand washing and maintaining physical distancing. (ANTARA)