Indonesia will continue to encourage improvement of the investment environment despite the COVID-19 pandemic to revive its economy that is on the brink of recession, said deputy head of Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Nurul Ichwan said on October 6.
Thailand's Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) predicted that the country’seconomy will contract by 7-9 percent this year, although exports could shrink less than previously projected, because the coronavirus pandemic remains a risk.
A report released by the Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on October 7 showed that the resident unemployment rate in the country rose by 0.4 percentage point in August to 4.5 percent, the highest level in more than a decade.
FITCH SOLUTIONS Country Risk & Industry Research projected the national government’s budget deficit to average 7.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) as the economy slows down due to the pandemic, but noted that its fiscal position will remain intact.
The modern international financial system emerged from the devastation of World War II. Since then, it has continued to be shaped by historic slumps – most recently, the 2008 global financial crisis.
Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019, global economic growth had already been on a downward trend, slowing from a peak of 3.8% in 2017 to 3.0% in 2019 – weighed down by rising trade tensions between the US and China, and the lagged effect of the US Federal Reserve’s (US Fed) policy tightening in 2017-18.
Indonesia’s economy could contract more than expected if the coronavirus pandemic remains uncontrolled, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy faces an “uneven and volatile” economic recovery, according to the World Bank (WB).
Cambodia and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have pledged to finalise their Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations by the end of the year to increase trade and investment between the two countries.
<p>Time: November 2025<br /> By: WTO and International Trade Group, Legal Department – VCCI</p>
