Indonesia beats recession amid worst Covid-19 wave

Jakarta, Aug 5 (EFE).- The Indonesian economy came out of recession in the second quarter of the year with a year-on-year growth of over 7 percent despite facing, since June, its worst wave of the coronavirus pandemic, whose negative impact is likely to be more noticeable in the coming quarters.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 7.07 percent year-on-year between April and June and increased by 3.31 percent over the first quarter of the year, which is the first GDP growth in five quarters, the country’s statistics bureau, Statistics Indonesia, locally known as BPS, announced on Thursday.

Transport and logistics, along with the food sector, posted the highest growth amid increased movement of people as restrictions were lifted before the current outbreak.

The restrictions were re-imposed in June due to a Covid-19 outbreak linked to the highly infectious Delta variant, which has made Indonesia the global epicenter of the pandemic, with more than 100,000 deaths, although health experts suspect the real number may be higher as testing has been limited.

Last year, the Indonesian economy, the world’s 16th largest, posted its first year-on-year contraction – of 2.07 percent – in over 20 years due to the coronavirus pandemic. EFE

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