Coronavirus: Indonesia fears millions of new poor

Text by: RFI Follow

For the first time since 1998, the World Bank has assured that the rate of extreme poverty will increase worldwide. In Indonesia, this scenario is more frightening than the virus itself: millions of people could fall back into poverty.

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With our correspondent in the region, Gabrielle Maréchaux

Indonesia's economic growth slowed to its lowest level in almost two decades in the first quarter. Economists said on Tuesday they expect an even greater impact from the coronavirus crisis in the second.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the largest economy in Southeast Asia grew 2.97% from January to March over one year, its lowest pace since 2001, and well below 5, 07% growth recorded in the same period last year, according to official statistics.

Millions of new poor

As a result of the economic slowdown, the World Bank ensures that the rate of extreme poverty will increase worldwide. Indonesia has delayed measures  to prevent the spread of the virus, assumes its government which is still worried about these millions of inhabitants who could fall back into poverty.

There is thus the bad scenario, that which predicts “  a million new poor  ” as the government bluntly calls them. And there is the worst, also presented by the authorities, which puts the number of people in poverty at four million.

The most at risk, not surprisingly, are the taxi drivers, the street vendors, who wait for the month of Ramadan to make a good part of their annual turnover in the traditional markets where the fast is broken, and all the 70 million workers in the informal service sector.

A race against poverty stopped

The Covid-19 epidemic puts Indonesia's long-running race against poverty on hold. Each year, for decades, the fourth most populous country in the world takes stock and hopes to finally move from emerging to developed countries.

Last year, Joko Widodo was re-elected based in particular on his result: growth around 5% during his first mandate despite several natural disasters and 880,000 people lifted from poverty in 2019 alone.

However, in 2020, despite temporary aid delivered in cash to the most precarious, these former poor risk quickly finding a misery that was familiar to them.

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• Indonesia
• Coronavirus
• Poverty

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