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Indonesia is pushing ahead to reopen its economy amid a surge in coronavirus infections, with the government seeking to minimize job losses and the threat of social unrest.
Southeast Asia’s biggest economy will need to adjust and cope with the pandemic, which has already put 2 million people out of work in just two months, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said.
“Whether we like it or not, we have to live with it,” he said in a May 29 interview. “We have to manage it. We cannot stay at home until next year. There will be more people hungry and they will become angry.”
Indonesia is starting to ease lockdown restrictions in areas where infection rates are under control, allowing malls and restaurants to reopen and permitting religious gatherings to take place. The nation of 265 million people, the fourth most-populous country in the world, saw new coronavirus cases double in May and has the highest fatalities in Southeast Asia.
“Nobody is saying it’s mission accomplished,” Hartarto said. “We have to live with diseases. We have to adjust and adapt” as long as there’s no vaccine, he said.
Hartarto said Indonesia’s economy likely contracted less than 3% in the second quarter, and that the government is willing to widen its fiscal deficit further to help cushion the blow from the pandemic. He’s sticking to the official forecast of 2.3% economic growth for the year.
Read: Indonesia Starts Year With Weakest Economic Growth Since 2001
The government has set aside about 642 trillion rupiah ($44 billion) so far as part of its emergency virus response, with the budget deficit expected to widen to at least 6.3%. Authorities are now preparing additional stimulus, including 9.4 trillion rupiah for the farming and fisheries sectors, which may be announced in coming days, Hartarto said.
“We will provide the necessary financial support when it is required,” he said.
Hartarto estimated some 9 million Indonesians already were out of work when the virus hit, and another 2 million have been made jobless since. Rising unemployment could cause a crisis in the financial sector, which may have further adverse consequences, he said.
“There will be social unrest as well, and that’s what we would like to prevent,” he said.
He said Indonesia’s economy is in a stronger position to cope with crises than in past slumps, like in 1998 and 2008. During the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago, Indonesia’s financial sector was in “deep trouble,” while its capital markets got hit in the global financial crisis.
“In 2020, our banking system is quite solid and our corporate sector is more sound,” he said. “The ones that are getting hit are the small and medium enterprises.”
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
