Managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde (Source: AFP/VNA)Indonesia will be able to weather the current economic storm as the country has hands-on experience of handling economic turbulence in the past, said managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde.
In her speech at University of Indonesia in Jakarta on September 1, the IMF director said Indonesia should take advantage of its young population and increase infrastructure investment to further boost growth.
Indonesia accounts for roughly half of the ASEAN workforce and is not hit by aging population and declining workforce like other member states, Lagarde noted, adding that the country expects a working age population of 180 million people, or 70 percent of total population, by 2030.
She pointed out that modern and efficient infrastructure is vital for the country of 17,000 islands to connect people and markets both nationally and globally.
However, infrastructure in Indonesia, especially in transport and power sectors, is still subpar, she noted.
The IMF estimated in June that Indonesian economy will grow by 4.7 percent this year, below the forecast of 5.2 percent in May and 5.5 percent in October last year. The economy hit a 5-year low in 2014, growing by 5.02 percent.
At the talk with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Lagarde also announced plans for the annual meeting between the IMF and the World Bank (WB) to be held in Bali, Indonesia in October 2018.
The IMF managing director visited Indonesia on September 1-2 to attend the high-level conference on the “Future of Asia’s Finance: Financing for Development 2015” co-hosted by the IMF and Bank Indonesia in Jakarta.-VNA
