Indonesia uses only half of its pandemic aid even though the economy is facing its first recession in more than 2 decades.
On November 2, the government channeled 52.8% of the 695 trillion rupiah aimed at helping businesses and consumers cope with the effects of the epidemic and it is unlikely to spend the entire budget this year.
According to Budi Gunadi Sadikin, who leads the national economic recovery task force, they claim that they will only spend 100 trillion rupiahs this quarter.
In addition, President Joko Widodo called on his ministers to speed up spending as they see Southeast Asia's largest economy shrink by about 3% in the third quarter. It will push Indonesia towards a technical recession after a 5.32% decline in the second quarter. Meanwhile, he also instructed his officers to start the 2021 project early to help grow back to 4.5% to 5.5% next year.
In addition, Indonesia is claimed to have achieved better levels in financing its share of social protection funds by spending 86.5% of its target, while business incentives remain, with only 29% of estimates spent so far.
