People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Deputy Speaker Syarief Hasan has lauded the government for Indonesia’s economic growth performance in the second quarter of 2021. The trend of economic improvement should be maintained so that it does not fall back after the implementation of level 4 public activity restrictions (PPKM), Hasan said in a statement received here Friday.
Based on Statistics Indonesia’s data released on Thursday, the economic growth on an annual basis (yoy) rose 7.07 percent from last year, which fell to -5.32 percent. Nevertheless, Indonesia’s economic growth quarter to quarter (qtq) only increased by 3.31 percent, Hasan reminded.
The government should pay attention to economic growth every quarter that is still around 3.31 percent, he remarked.
“Economic growth must be reviewed comprehensively, not just fixated on high annual economic growth, while the economic growth per quarter is still low,” Hasan said.
He urged the government to pay attention to the high unemployment rate in Indonesia.
“Although the economy increased as compared to last year, there is a significant increase in unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he observed.
Based on data from the Ministry of Manpower, the number of people who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic reached 2.1 million people, he said. The figure contributed to a 26.26 percent increase in unemployment, from 6.93 million in 2020 to 8.75 million in February 2021. The poverty rate also reached 10.14 percent in March 2021, he said, citing the data.
Economic improvement cannot be evaluated only from economic growth, Hasan assessed. (The government) must comprehensively look at the conditions of unemployment and poverty, he said.
“We hope that all communities affected by the pandemic can survive and the government continues to accelerate the aid distribution for MSMEs so that not only big businesses grow, but also the small ones,” he stressed.
He also pushed the government to focus more on tackling the pandemic. The main cause of economic problems is the pandemic that has not been handled properly.
“The positivity rate of COVID-19 still reaches 24 percent, the total cases reach 3.65 million, and death rates are above 100 thousand cases. This situation has disturbed life. The government must urgently resolve the pandemic that is the main problem,” Hasan emphasized.
Source: Antara News