A street in Indonesia. The country is hit hard by COVID-19 (Source: VNA) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia will receive loans worth about 7 billion USD from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to finance its fight against the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo has said that the funds will be spent on financing the country’s widening budget deficit of 5.07 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to prevent a greater health crisis and economic meltdown from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Perry told the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing financial affairs that the three banks planned on around 7 billion USD in loans during an investor teleconference. He added that the Finance Ministry will also maximise the government’s budget.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo recently announced additional state spending worth 405.1 trillion Rp (25 billion USD) to finance the country’s battle against the pandemic. The new allocation will be used specifically for health care, the social welfare safety network and business-recovery programmes.
In funding the extra budget, the government has resorted to debt issuance, international institution loans and state budget reallocation./.
VNA
