Pandemic puts Indonesia into recession; 1st time in 20 years

Indonesia’s economy has entered its first recession since the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago as the country struggles to curb the coronavirus pandemic

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s economy has fallen into recession for the first time since the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago as the country struggles to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Statistics Indonesia, the central statistics agency, said Thursday that Southeast Asia’s largest economy contracted at a 3.5% annual pace in July-September, the second consecutive quarterly contraction.

The economy shrank at a 5.32% pace in the previous quarter and grew 2.9% in January-March, its slowest rate in almost two decades.

Indonesia has reported more than 425,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the largest in Southeast Asia and second in Asia only to India’s 8.3 million confirmed…