Business & Economy

Indonesia’s economy posts first year-on-year contraction in over 20 years

Jakarta, Feb 5 (efe-epa).- Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 2.07 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, its first contraction in more than two decades.

Transport, export manufacturing and services were some of the sectors most impacted by the year-on-year decline, the country’s statistics bureau, Statistics Indonesia, locally known as BPS, said in a report on Friday.

The GDP of Asia’s fifth-largest economy was affected by social distancing measures and partial lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The country’s economy, which is still in a technical recession, improved slightly during the last quarter of the year between October and December as compared to the third although it shrank 2.19 percent from the same period in 2019.

The GDP of Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populated country, last declined during the Asian financial crisis of 1998.

It shrank by more than 13 percent during that year.

In August, the Indonesian government estimated that the country’s GDP would grow between 4.5 and 5.5 percent in 2021.

Indonesia, which has started a massive COVID-19 vaccination campaign, is the Southeast Asian nation worst-hit by the pandemic.

It has recorded over 1.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases, including 30,770 deaths. EFE-EPA

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