Minister of Finance Explains Government Policy to Face Global Uncertainty

Thepresidentpost.id - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati said, in the midst of current global uncertainty, Indonesia must continue to maintain the momentum of economic growth. 

A number of situations such as the dynamics of global financial markets, geopolitical tensions in Palestine, and rising food prices due to El Nino have had an impact on the world economy, including Indonesia.

“This is a situation that we continue to monitor. We will continue to improve, especially several factors that affect the lowest levels of society, the bottom 40 percent. "We have seen the price of rice increase quite sharply in the last six months and this has also caused volatile inflation originating from food to be one of the biggest contributors," said the Minister of Finance, quoted from the Ministry of Finance's website, Tuesday (07/11/2023).

In controlling the price of rice, said the Minister of Finance, the government, through the National Food Agency, in collaboration with Bulog, continues to strive to ensure supplies are maintained until the next planting and harvest season.

Apart from that, the government also distributes direct cash assistance (BLT) which can maintain people's purchasing power. This assistance was received by 18.8 million beneficiary families (KPM) in the amount of IDR 200 thousand per month. The total budget allocated is IDR 7.52 trillion.

Then, the government is also trying to increase economic growth by accelerating the distribution of people's business credit (KUR).

"The Coordinating Minister [for the Economy] together with me and several ministers monitored that our KUR distribution this year is somewhat weak. "This is because there have been several changes in terms of policy, so we will now ask banks to accelerate the distribution of credit to people's businesses," he said.

The Minister of Finance added that up to September 2023, from the target of IDR 297 trillion, KUR distribution had only been realized amounting to IDR 107 trillion. Therefore, the government will accelerate KUR distribution in the last three months.

Another step taken by the government is to provide support for commercial houses. The government provides incentives in the form of government-borne value added tax (VAT DTP) for houses priced up to IDR 2 billion. Apart from that, said the Minister of Finance, there is support for administration costs for low-income people of IDR 4 million per house until December 2024, as well as support for housing for poor people of IDR 20 million per house through the Integrated Prosperous House program carried out by the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos).

"We hope that this policy package will certainly have a boosting impact on our economy," he said. (UN)