Indonesia's Current Economic Condition

Indonesia’s Current Economic Condition Indonesia is a country where many things are highlighted and noticed by people around the world. One of the topics is its economic condition. Many experts, domestic or international, have been taking notes on Indonesia’s economic trends and are making forecasts on how Indonesia’s economy will be in the following year, including this year’s economic condition. This essay will describe the status of Indonesia’s current economic condition, its challenges, and how those challenges can be overcome. Indonesia is actually doing well in terms of economics. Indonesia was not highly affected by the global economy crisis that happened in 2008 and was able to maintain its economic growth above 6 percent from 2008 to 2011. It has also been reported that Indonesia has an incredible growth in its GDP (Gross Domestic Products) and therefore impacted in the decrease of the level of its debt (Ing & Basri, January 2012). These data show that Indonesia’s current economic condition is promising. However, with all these great improvements in the current Indonesia’s economic, it seems that there are not many visible changes in the eyes of the Indonesian citizens. Many people have trouble with poverty and unemployment. Not to mention other problems that can be a roadblock to Indonesia’s economic growth such as corruption and uneven development throughout the country. Indonesia is a developing country, meaning that it still relies on agriculture and mining or primary sector as its basic foundation. However, this primary sector doesn’t offer much job opportunities, especially for those who are “secondary school graduates” that make up most of the labor work force in Indonesia (World Bank Economy Quarterly, December 2011). Not to mention the low wage that this sector gives. This leads to unemployment and poverty. Indonesia is a country that has so many natural resources and raw materials that can actually be extracted and made into