JAKARTA, March 20 — Indonesia’s finance minister today raised the country’s crisis management protocol level to "standby” from "alert” and warned that if the Covid-19 outbreak persisted, economic growth could fall to between 0 per cent-2.5 per cent.

Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said her baseline scenario was for GDP growth at above four per cent, while the scenario of no growth assumed the coronavirus outbreak lasting three to six months, global trade slumping and Indonesia going into lockdown. Indonesia’s GDP grew 5.02 per cent last year.

A total of 62.3 trillion rupiah (RM17 billion) in government spending will be shifted to finance the country’s Covid-19 response, she told an online briefing, up from 17.17 trillion rupiah previously announced. — Reuters