Indonesia's economic recovery projected to be among fastest in world: President

JAKARTA - Indonesian President Joko Widodo Tuesday said his country's economy would to be among the fastest to recover after being affected badly by the COVID-19 pandemic, citing predictions by several international financial institutions.

"The IMF projected that the world economy would grow by 5.4 percent, the World Bank predicted it would grow by 4.2 percent and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) expected it would grow by 2.8-5.2 percent. I think if the predictions are right, our economic growth should be higher than that of the world economy," the president told a video cabinet meeting.

Widodo also reminded of uncertain global economic condition as a number of international financial institutions have been revising their predictions on the world economic growth both in 2020 and 2021.

"We should also ensure that some measures get priorities in 2021 including the expected widening of the state budget deficit aiming at financing efforts to accelerate the economic recovery," he said.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said after a limited cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the president is planning to propose widening of the country's 2021 budget deficit to 5.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to support the economy against possible recession due to coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, the government and the House of Representatives agreed to settle the 2021 state budget deficit at 4.7 percent of the GDP.