In the macro economy, there are several indicators that are important enough to assess a country’s economic performance. When one macroeconomic indicator variable is good, it will have a big impact on other indicators so that a country’s economy can be said to be healthy, and vice versa. Economic growth is also very closely related to the welfare and poverty of a nation. Dr. Lilies Setiartiti SE as a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics UMY saw that the Indonesian economy increasingly showed concern, which was seen by the fact that the number of poor and vulnerable people to poverty reached 100 million.
This was conveyed by Lilies in the Final Reflection of 2018 and Outlook 2019 in the UMY Postgraduate Program in the Meeting Room of the Postgraduate Director, Saturday (29/12). “The welfare of a country or economic performance is not measured how long the road is paved. It is also not measured by how many bridges and toll roads are built even though they really need good infrastructure to drive the economy. But welfare is measured by the number of poor people decreases and the purchasing power is getting better, “said Lilies.
Indonesia in 2015 targets economic growth at 5.7 percent, but in reality it is only at 4.9 percent. It can be said through this fact that the Indonesian economy is not going well. Lilies criticized the factor that caused this to happen because the price of fuel rose, imports were getting bigger compared to exports, the debt was increasing, and the exchange rate of the rupiah with the dollar was increasingly suffocating.
The impact is felt by the citizens of the lower middle class such as salt, rice, and cassava farmers. The 2018 World Happiness Report issued by the United Nations to measure subjective well-being, Indonesia is ranked 96th, down from previously ranked 72. While Finland is the happiest country in the world shifting Norway’s position.
“Many salt farmers in Madura cry, because the government imports salt of 1.7 million tons per year from Australia on the grounds that local salt is not of high quality. But in my opinion it’s not a solution, salt farmers or others should be educated on how to get high-quality crops. Not the solution to buy, buy and buy. This makes Indonesia’s level of happiness plummet, ”Lilies concluded. (Habibi)
 
credit: BHP UMY