IMF downgrades Indonesia’s economic growth to 5.4 percent in 2022

A corner of Jakarta (Photo: AFP)

Jakarta (VNA) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its economic growth forecast for Indonesia in 2022 to 5.4 percent, 0.2 percent lower than its previous projection.

In a statement on March 23, the IMF did not explain the downgrade, but it repeated that Indonesia's growth was supported by favourable global commodity prices, the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and rising mobility amid vaccination efforts and continued policy support.

It still highly valued the Indonesian government's response to the wave of outbreaks of the Omicron variant, as well as economic recovery efforts in recent times.

The fund still kept Indonesia's 2023 growth forecast at 6 percent as in its report in January.

The IMF has advised the Bank of Indonesia (BI) to stop buying bonds in the primary market to limit the government's debt interest expenses.

The same day, BI affirmed that it will continue to optimise financial policies to maintain economic stability and recovery of the Southeast Asian nation./.