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Indonesia’s GDP seen to grow 5.1% despite Omicron threat
London-based investment bank HSBC forecasts “extremely strong” spending, “a lot of” investment and contained inflation for Indonesia this year, indicating ongoing economic recovery.
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Four syringes and a screen displaying the word "Omicron", the name of the new COVID-19 variant, in London on Dec. 2, 2021. (AFP/Justin Thallis)
I
ndonesia’s economic growth is on track to recover this year to its prepandemic level of around 5 percent as the country reopens amid the looming threat of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Coordinating Investment and Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the country’s economic recovery could take longer than expected if the Omicron variant led to a surge in hospitalizations and declining vaccine protection.
However, the variant causes relatively mild symptoms based on initial observations, Luhut said, adding that viruses tended to mutate into less dangerous variants.
“We hope this is the case so that, although the spread is faster, COVID-19 will result in increasingly mild symptoms going forward,” Luhut said at an online event on Wednesday.
“If this happens, we can see a faster economic recovery while living alongside COVID-19 safely.”
The government is on alert as the number of confirmed Omicron variant cases has risen to a cumulative 506 as of Monday, according to the Health Ministry.
Read also: Indonesia rolls out booster shots, amid fears of Omicron spread
