Success in Reducing the Rate of Inflation and Post-Pandemic Economic Recovery Jokowi’s Work Performance for Two Periods
By: Khairunisa Rahma)*
The success in efforts to reduce the rate of inflation and realize economic recovery, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, is a very brilliant work achievement by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) during his two terms of leadership.
It has been proven that the inflation rate in Indonesia has not experienced a high contraction and is able to continue to be under pressure and how fast the economic recovery has been after the Covid-19 pandemic, even making the country one of the few countries in the world that is able to continue to grow amidst shocks.
These two things, namely the stable pressure on inflation and how fast the economic recovery has been even though it has been shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic which has even hampered many other developed countries in the world, are clearly President Jokowi’s brilliant work achievements during his two terms or 10 years of leadership. This.
The Head of State revealed that currently Indonesia has succeeded in continuing to increase its competitiveness in the eyes of the world, which was previously ranked 47th globally, but has now experienced a drastic increase to 27th in the world.
Not only that, but under the leadership of President Joko Widodo’s government, this nation has become a very resilient country, which is proven by its resilience in facing the Covid-19 pandemic, then facing climate change and the geopolitics of an increasingly hot world. .
Of the few other countries in the world, Indonesia is a nation that is able to recover more quickly and even continues to achieve economic growth. For information, the national economy continues to be maintained at around 5 percent.
In fact, quite a few other developed countries in the world have not succeeded in growing and have even had to experience a slowdown in economic growth due to the pandemic, climate change and warming global geopolitics.
No half-hearted, thanks to the even distribution of infrastructure development that the government has carried out starting from the most peripheral and outermost areas, namely by changing the development paradigm to become Indonesia-centric and not Java-centric, the eastern regions of Indonesia, such as Papua and Maluku, have experienced very significant economic growth.
In Papua, they experienced economic growth of over 6 percent, then in North Maluku they managed to grow to over 20 percent. Furthermore, the national inflation rate continues to be controlled at around 2-3 percent, at a time when many other countries in the world are experiencing extraordinary inflation increases, some even reaching up to 200 percent.
President Jokowi’s brilliant achievements are also related to the government’s ability to reduce the extreme poverty rate, which was previously 6.1 percent, now only 0.8 percent. Then the unemployment rate was also depressed from previously 5.7 percent to now only 4.8 percent.
The Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), Perry Warjiyo, said that inflation in the country over the last 10 years has remained relatively under control, even being the lowest in the world.
This is proven by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate which is consistent at 2.84 percent in May 2024, or in line with the target of 2.5 plus or minus 1 percent. In fact, it is estimated that the controlled inflation rate at a low level will continue for the remainder of 2024 and into 2025 onwards.
Because current global conditions are still volatile and unstable, BI together with the government continue to strengthen synergy to implement consistent monetary policy in order to maintain the stability of the Indonesian economy by controlling the rate of inflation and maintaining the stability of the rupiah exchange rate, as per President Jokowi’s brilliant performance in 2 period of his leadership.
At the start of 2024, the public was worried about the issue of the threat of an economic recession hitting Indonesia. However, it turns out, this is not proven at all.
According to the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the performance of the APBN is truly extraordinary because it has succeeded in making itself healthy and making the national economy healthy.
Although there are still global risks that have shifted from the previous threat of the Covid-19 pandemic to pressure on the world economy, to other challenges including uncertainty and the world’s geopolitical conditions which are currently not good.
All these threats made the government even from an early age try to take various anticipatory steps. When the source of pressure comes from outside, the government continues to maintain the domestic economy very well, including using APBN instruments.
The acceleration of state spending occurred as a form of full support for the APBN in providing improvements to the quality of education and public health, including accelerating infrastructure and connectivity development and stabilizing prices.
The suppressed inflation rate and the realization of economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic are two real successes in President Jokowi’s extraordinary performance during his two terms as Head of State.
*Financial Institution Analyst
