REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo said here on Wednesday that he would come up with the fifth package of economic policies on Thursday, to be followed later by other packages.

The packages that will follow the fifth package will feature short and medium term policies aimed at making the country more competitive, he said.

"Tomorrow we will present a fifth package of policies. Later there will be more short and medium term packages," he said at a meeting with provincial governors, district heads and city mayors from across the country.

He said Indonesia must be able to compete with other countries, such as Vietnam and India that have undergone fast economic growth, adding if Indonesia failed to carry out reforms, investors would bypass it.

"The IHSG (stock index) has already started to rebound while development will no longer remain centered in Java. Instead, development will happen all across Indonesia, especially eastern Indonesian regions," he said.

At the meeting, President Joko Widodo also discussed infrastructure development plans in various regions in the country.

He said he believed Indonesia's economy would continue to improve even as some people were worried about the state of economy or even thought that the country was now going through an economic crisis.

"In this quarter -- and I have just now met with the governor of Bank Indonesia -- the growth rate has reached 4.85. The slowdown has stopped and the economy is moving up," he said.

Comparing the current phase with the situation in 1999, he said, "In 1999, the economy grew at minus 13 percent but now it is still growing at 4.7 percent. In the third quarter, the growth rate was already recorded at 4.85. It is far from the (1999) level when inflation was recorded at 82 percent."

Bank Indonesia has even predicted that by the end of the year, inflation would not be above four percent while last year it was recorded at 8.5 percent.

"This can happen because prices are under control. We have TPID (inflation control team) in the regions. So when inflation happens, we immediately intervene. We have asked the regions to intervene in maintaining prices of products that see a hike," he said.

The president said that the rupiah exchange rate in 1998 had reached Rp16,600 per US dollar but now it is in the range of Rp13,600 to Rp13,700.

Non-performing loans at the banks right now are between 2.6 and 2.8 percent while in 1998, these had reached 30 to 32 percent.

"The ratio of the non-performing loans is still very normal. We must know that and track the same. We must not believe in social media and say we have a crisis now.

How can we say that? The economy is growing at 4.67 percent. Is that a crisis situation? We must be confident. We must be optimistic," he said.

He said the rupiah's rate had once reached Rp14,700 per US dollar but following economic policy packages 1 to 6, the rate is now being curbed.

"The rupiah fluctuated up to Rp14,700 per dollar but through de-regulation (it can be curbed). We have produced 1 to 6 packages of policies and we will produce even 1,000 more. I have asked the economic team to formulate a policy to deregulate further. I wish the regions will follow suit," he said.

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