VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati again revised the projection for Indonesia's overall economic growth in 2020 to stay in a negative range, though the contraction is deeper, specifically minus 2.2 to minus 1.7 percent.

"Indeed, this is slightly better than the average ASEAN or emerging market countries, but we are still vigilant," the minister stated during a virtual press conference on the realization of the State Budget as per November 2020 here on Monday.

Earlier, the finance minister had estimated Indonesia's economic growth this year to lie in the range of minus 1.7 to minus 0.6 percent.

In total, the government made four revisions in 2020: minus 0.4 to 2.3 percent in May-April, then 0.4 percent to 1.0 percent in May-June, minus 1.7 to minus 0.6 percent in September-October, and minus 2.2 to minus 1.7 percent in December.

The finance minister explained that high uncertainty arising from the COVID-19 pandemic had led to Indonesia's economic growth projections by various institutions undergo several revisions.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also made four revisions on the economic growth forecast, with the latest projection of minus 2.2 percent, while the IMF conducted revisions thrice, with the latest projection of minus 1.5 percent.

The World Bank had also revised the economic growth projections four times, with a forecast of minus 2.2 percent, while the OECD also revised the projection four times, with a forecast of minus 2.4 percent.

In the 2020 outlook, only government consumption is expected to grow positively, at 0.3 percent, while other indicators, such as household consumption, recorded a negative growth of 2.7 to 2.4 percent.

Investment is projected to grow negatively in the range of 4.5 to 4.4 percent, exports contracted by 6.2 percent to 5.7 percent, and imports are also projected to grow negatively in the range of 15 percent to 14.3 percent.

Meanwhile, for the fourth quarter of 2020, the finance minister projects economic growth to lie in the range of minus 2.9 to minus 0.9 percent. (antaranews)