Forbes Indonesia Magazine - February 2022

In this issue

1st of February marks the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Tiger, a character associated with bravery and courage, which perhaps, in today’s economic context, can symbolize our aspirations for strength and resilience for the coming year. The US announced its national debt surpassed $30 trillion bringing into sharp focus this overhang of the investments made by most governments in protecting their economies during the pandemic. The IMF also recently report- ed that global government debt now exceeds global annual GDP and cautioned governments, including Indonesia’s, on taking on new debt going forward as the need to raise interest rates to fight the emerging inflation trend will also place a significant burden on public finances to service the existing debt. Bank Indonesia Governor, Perry Warjiyo, highlighted the likely rise in inflation whilst presenting his 2021 annual reports and forecasted a year of recovery in 2022 with GDP growth of between 4.7% and 5.4% expected.