Minister of Finance: Three Years After the Pandemic, the World is Not Fine

Armfalcon.com, JAKARTA — Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani stated that the world is not doing well three years after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“(Currently), the geopolitical situation creates a commodity crisis, namely rising energy and food prices, driving up inflation, especially in the United States (US) and Europe, which for nearly a decade have enjoyed very low inflation and low interest rates,” he said. Minister of Finance at the Report Launching event Pathways Towards Economic Security: Indonesia Poverty Assessment at The Energy Building, Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD), Jakarta, Tuesday (9/5/2023).

Due to these various problems, he continued, there was an increase in inflation in the US and Europe so that it had big implications for the whole world considering that the Central Bank (The Fed) was raising interest rates. With high interest rates, inflation is soaring killing the job.

According to him, an increase in interest rates which are higher three years after the pandemic will greatly disrupt a lot of momentum, especially for various corporations and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) considering that the SME sector is a social safety net (social safety net) for many poor families in Indonesia.

“They (corporations and SMEs) will be hit hard by this (various crises at the global level),” said the Minister of Finance.

To protect jobs and maintain Indonesia’s growth momentum, the government is said to be dealing with rising inflation from the demand (supply) side because current inflation comes from disturbances on the supply side. supply.

“We overcome inflation not only through high interest rates because we know that this inflation is not only from higher demand that comes from more liquidity. Inflation comes from volatile food and energy prices, so we will see and try to overcome it from side supply because inflation comes from disruptions on the supply side,” said the Minister of Finance.

Now, Indonesia is said to be able to reduce the rate of inflation even at a very critical time, namely when the homeland celebrates Ramadhan and Idul Fitri 2023/1444 Hijriah.

“That’s how we deal with this global shock, not only the pandemic that Satu Kahkonen (Country Director of the World Bank Indonesia) mentioned, but now this is a much bigger complicated shock,” he said.

source : Between