The Indonesian government has officially revoked the Covid-19 pandemic status and changed it to endemic status. However, economist believed that this change will not bring any significant impact to the economy
Teuku Rifky, an economist from the Economy and Public Research Institution of the Faculty of Economy and Business of Universitas Indonesia, asserted that economic recovery has been ongoing since the government revoked the Public Activity Restriction Policy (PPKM) by the end of last year.
Public mobility and level of activities have increase since the PPKM were revoked. Consequently, the announcement on the removal of the pandemic status brings little to no effect.
Tourism industry improvement
Although the change of the pandemic status into endemic may help in driving the tourism sector, Rifky said that it will have no impact to the national economy.
Similarly, Chief Economist of Bank Permata Josua Pardede, argued that the change of the pandemic status will not provide any significant benefit to the economy.
He explained that the people’s mobility, which affects consumption rate, have been increasing in the past year. Therefore, further changes in the pandemic status would not be impactful.
However, Josua admitted that the changes in the pandemic status may help in improving the tourism industry by attracting more foreign tourists.
