Indonesian Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Susiwijono (Photo: en.antaranews.com) Jakarta (VNA) – The Indonesian government is optimistic that the country will achieve its target of 5.1–5.7% economic growth in 2024 amid the projected global economic slowdown.
Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Susiwijono has said the government remains optimistic that in 2024, the country’s economic growth will still be better than 2023, even with the correction of global economic growth to 2.4%
He revealed that all international organisations have projected that the global economy will experience a slowdown in 2024. The World Bank (WB) has forecast that global economic growth will slow from 2.6% in 2023 to 2.4% in 2024. Likewise, in the October 2023 edition of the World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that global growth will decline to 2.9% in 2024.
According to Susiwijono, the projected global growth slowdown can be attributed to several factors, such as heated geopolitical rivalries, which have led to supply chain disruptions. The other factors include climate change and the tightening of monetary policy in developed countries.
He said that the purchasing power of the community must be maintained. Therefore, it is necessary for the government to continue the social assistance programme in 2024.
In December 2023, the government provided rice assistance to 21.3 million beneficiaries. It also doled out cash assistance of 200,000 IDR (12.83 USD) per month from November to December 2023 to a total of 18.8 million targeted beneficiaries.
To strengthen micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) amid high interest rates, the government encouraged the accelerated disbursement of low-interest people's business credit (KUR) through weekend banking services to reach the target of 297 trillion IDR in 2023.
He underlined that what needs to be anticipated in 2024 is the impact of the expected global economic slowdown on sectors that rely on the global market, such as Indonesian furniture exports./.
