VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the losses suffered by all countries in the world due to having to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past six months had reached around $9 trillion to $15 trillion.

"This is equivalent to nine to 15 times the size of the Indonesian economy. The impact was so devastating in less than six months,” Sri Mulyani said in Jakarta, Thursday.

Sri Mulyani stated that the loss was in line with the rate of world economic growth, which is predicted to experience a deep contraction this year, namely between 3-5 percent.

"Initially, in 2020 the world economy was estimated to grow by 3.4 percent, now it has turned into a contraction of 3 percent to 5 percent," Sri Mulyani said.

Meanwhile, she said the global panic due to the COVID-19 pandemic had implications for Indonesia, such as the outflow of foreign capital or capital outflows in the stock market which reached Rp 140 trillion.

Not only that, Sri Mulyani revealed that world panic had also caused the turmoil and the fall of the JCI, the Government Securities (SBN) market, and the domestic foreign exchange (forex) market.

She continued that this also contributed to the decline in economic activity and created a tremendous threat to human safety and welfare, which was reflected in the increasing unemployment and poverty.

"The threat of unemployment and poverty in all countries has increased sharply in a short time," said Sri Mulyani.

Social stability, economic and financial systems are also threatened due to the bankruptcy of the business world in all sectors ranging from transportation, hospitality, restaurants, manufacturing, trade, to construction.

"Various efforts to overcome COVID-19 with vaccine discovery efforts are still in the development process and require time and complicated preparation for implementation," she added.

"Export, import, and trade activities between countries have declined," she said.

However, Sri Mulyani said that the whole world is trying to overcome the crisis by finding a COVID-19 vaccine that is it requires a long and complicated process and preparation.

"The combination causes uncertainty in the economy and the financial sector is very high, while the predictability level of COVID-19, both in terms of impact and time for completion, is still very low," Sri Mulyani said. (Antaranews)