The national economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic is actually going very well. However, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) continues to ask the public to shop. This is an effort to boost the national economy.
He asked local governments (pemda) should facilitate this. Jokowi gave an example of tourism. Now is the right time in the morning, the local government is aggressively promoting its tourist sites, inviting people to come and shop.
“Repair and promote what is called tourism in villages in the regions, promote it so that people come to that place to spend their money, also encourage MSMEs to sell there so that people spend as much as possible,” said Jokowi while giving a briefing to the Association of Provincial Governments All Indonesia (APPSI) in Balikpapan, Thursday (23/2/2023)
“The formula is that we encourage people to spend, not save money at this time because we need economic growth to be maintained and if possible it will actually increase,” he said.
Furthermore, Jokowi reminded me that in 2022, public savings funds in banks will reach IDR 690 trillion. These funds must be liquid so that the national economy can rotate.
In 2022, public spending was halted due to the instability of global economic conditions. People prefer to keep their money in the bank.
“Be careful about this, it seems trivial, but don’t let Rp. 690 trillion stays in the bank’s savings account, that’s not good for economic growth,” he concluded.
“The increase in public savings at the bank in 2022 is IDR 690 trillion. Community funds are held and not spent, meaning that people are discouraged and don’t want to shop. They don’t want to come to restaurants, they don’t want to come to malls, they don’t want to come to shops. No shopping. It’s better to save at the bank, this is not allowed. We have to encourage the public so that they can spend as much as possible to trigger our economic growth,” said Jokowi.
He hopes that the public will want to increase the frequency of spending instead of continuing to save. The goal is for the Indonesian economy to become more stable.
he appealed to local governments to continue to encourage public consumption figures. Moreover, currently, the policy of imposing restrictions on community activities (PPKM) has been discontinued.
“If this happens, economic growth will automatically go up. Therefore, don’t let anyone hold you back on matters related to spending,” he stressed.