Indonesia signs $1B loan with Australia for help with pandemic

Indonesia signed a more than $1 billion loan with Australia Thursday local time in order to help the Southeast Asian country respond to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Indonesia’s finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati announced the $1.09 billion loan in a streamed press conference, Reuters reported. 

“Everybody, all parts of society, are hurt by this COVID-19 [outbreak] and the role of fiscal policy together with other instruments, like monetary policy, is very critical during this difficult time,” she said. 

Indonesia has reported 448,118 COVID-19 cases, leading to 14,836 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

But several experts have said the country’s reported numbers are lower than the actual amount of cases as Indonesia reports one of the lowest testing rates in the world, according to The Diplomat. 

Like in many countries, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted Indonesia’s economy, leading it to fall into a recession for the first time since 1997.