wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Business Times 21 Feb 07
Jakarta floods may erode growth: Economic losses estimated to be 5.2t rupiah

 Business Times 7 Feb 07
Indon flood losses may surge to 4.1t rupiah
Govt estimate covers disruption to economic activities, public services
By Laurel Teo

JAKARTA FIVE days into one of Jakarta's worst floods in recent memory, total economic losses could have climbed to 4.1 trillion rupiah (S$694 million), according to initial government estimates.

The figure was given yesterday afternoon by Paskah Suzetta, State Minister of National Development Planning, who also heads the National Planning Agency (Bappenas).

Mr Paskah said Bappenas was working with the United Nations Development Programme for a more precise assessment, a process that is expected to take two weeks.

'For now, we have an estimate. Potential losses because of the flood are about 4.1 trillion rupiah,' he told reporters, adding that the estimate covered disturbances to economic activities and public services.

The figure is still below the estimated losses of 5 trillion to 6.7 trillion rupiah in 2002, when Jakarta last suffered a major flooding disaster. But insurers are saying that claims for damage to property, including houses, shops, factories and motor vehicles might actually surpass 400 billion rupiah, which is more than double the claims bill of 200 billion rupiah for 2002.

Frans Y Sahusilawane, who heads the General Insurance Association of Indonesia, told national daily Kompas that this year's floods swamped a wider area with sharper impact.

'Also, many areas that were traditionally safe from floods did not escape this time,' he said in an interview on Monday, adding that the industry needed about a week more to confirm the value.

The heavy rains that began on Thursday have flooded 75 per cent of Jakarta, killing at least 30 people and forcing more than 340,000 others to flee their homes.

While the weather brightened yesterday and flood waters receded in parts of the capital, huge areas remained submerged, while massive traffic jams continued in some areas.

Officials were on guard for outbreaks of disease among the flood refugees.

Businesses were also trying to assess the economic effect of the floods, which have caused power blackouts, delayed flights and train schedules, cut phone lines and Internet access, and made many key roads impassable.

Indonesian Business Association chairman Sofyan Wanandi estimated that flood losses for the manufacturing industry reached 1 trillion rupiah. In a Kompas report yesterday, he said some factories in and around Jakarta had been forced to shut down either because buildings were flooded or workers could not report for work.

Road closures also affected transport logistics, in particular the import and export of goods, as access to the nearby Tanjung Priok port was affected. The port, which handles 60 per cent of national export and import activities, reported a drastic fall in large lorry traffic.

Only an average of 1,800 of these vehicles entered the port each day between Friday and Sunday, compared to the usual 5,000 units per day. National Land Transport Providers' Association chairman Murphy Hutagalung, estimated land transport losses at 300 billion rupiah per day.

Earlier, Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), the nation's biggest telephone company, said 90,000 customers were without service after the floods and it could lose 1.5 billion rupiah of revenue.

Affected areas included the city's main police station, banks in the central business district as well as the Jakarta Stock Exchange, but reports yesterday said service was returning.

The stock exchange's main trading activities did not suffer, however, as most of it was conducted remotely through a special fibre-optic network. Yesterday, Indonesia's stocks fell for a second day, closing 7.25, or 0.4 per cent, lower at 1761.29. Telkom and Bank Central Asia shares declined on concern that costs from the floods will hurt earnings.

Business Times 21 Feb 07
Jakarta floods may erode growth: Economic losses estimated to be 5.2t rupiah

(JAKARTA) Indonesia's economic growth rate this year, estimated to accelerate 6.3 per cent, may be eroded because of losses from week-long floods earlier this month in the capital that killed 79 people.

'Floods will affect the national's economic growth, but we need to calculate it further,' National Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta told reporters here on Monday. 'The impact won't be too big.'

Indonesia raised its estimate for economic losses from the floods in Jakarta by 11 per cent to 5.2 trillion rupiah (S$884 million) from an earlier assessment of 4.1 trillion rupiah a week ago, Mr Suzetta said. He said the figures did not yet include damage to social and public facilities such as schools, clinics and hospitals.

'The flood has the potential to lower Jakarta's GDP growth by 0.59 per cent in the industry and trade sector' and also hit growth in surrounding towns, he said. Indirect losses arising from lost business opportunities are estimated at another 3.6 trillion rupiah, he said.

South-east Asia's largest economy expects to grow 6.3 per cent this year from 5.5 per cent in 2006.

The worst floods in the Indonesian capital since 2002 forced nearly 600,000 people to flee their homes during its peak, he said. The number of refugees is greater than five years ago because the flooding is across a wider area around Jakarta, which accounts for about 30 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.

The floods also caused power blackouts and shut telephone lines in some parts of the city of more than eight million people.

The damage may trim gross domestic product in Jakarta by 0.59 per cent, while that of Bogor, Depok and Bekasi are estimated to shrink 1.33 per cent and the economy of Tangerang by 2.62 per cent, Mr Suzetta said.

Automotive, electronic and small-scale industries lost 2.9 trillion rupiah because of the floods, while infrastructure damage was 854 billion rupiah, he said.

The government has said it will spend as much as 2.7 trillion rupiah to build a second canal and water catchment areas in and around Jakarta to reduce the risk of annual floods.

Monsoon rains cause flooding almost every year in Jakarta because the city's only flood canal, built by the Dutch in 1930, cannot handle the run-off.

While steps have been taken to restore goods transport, inflation may accelerate in Jakarta, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono said on Feb 8. The government is 'optimistic' it will reach its year-end inflation target of 5-7 per cent, he said. - Bloomberg, AFP
links
Related articles on Global issues: climate change
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com