Overview

As a result of the rapid spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) across the country, Indonesia has now become the ASEAN country with the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases after Singapore, which has also posted the highest death toll in Southeast Asia (582 as of 19 April 2020).[1]

According to the Center of Reform on Economics (“CORE Indonesia”), this condition not only has the potential to significantly weaken the country’s economic growth but to also to bring about a domino effect in terms of rising unemployment which is the result of significant layoffs across several sectors of the economy, including the manufacturing, tourism, transportation, trade and construction sectors, among others. CORE Indonesia has also published its estimated increase in the overall national unemployment rate (tingkat pengangguran terbuka) for the second quarter of 2020, which, the organization believes, could balloon from 4.25 million up to 9.35 million.[2]