The household consumption of Indonesia might contract in the second and also the third quarters because of the restrictions on the movement of people to control the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus or COVID-19, dealing a stronger blow to the economic growth, the finance minister stated on Wednesday.
Indonesia to suffer contraction of household consumption due to Coronavirus
The first-quarter GDP data put forth a sharp slowdown in the consumption growth due to the social distancing curbs that were imposed in parts of the nation in mid-March with the overall growth declining to a 19-year low of 2.97 percent.
Indonesia's GDP is 57 percent consumption, equal to more than 9,000 trillion rupiah ($596.22 billion), Sri Mulyani Indrawati told parliament. "When Jakarta and Java (island) implemented large scale restrictions, it's inevitable that consumption does not grow, it may even contract," she said, adding that the government's 110 trillion rupiah welfare programme would not be able to make up for the losses.
(With agency inputs)
