Indonesia After the Asian Crisis*

Indonesia was deeply affected by the 1997–1998 crisis, more so than its East Asian neighbors. Its economic contraction was deeper and more prolonged. It was the only one to experience a (temporary) loss of macroeconomic control. It also suffered “twin crises,” in the sense that its serious economic and financial problems were accompanied by regime collapse. Consequently, recovery was a slow and complex process, as new institutions had to be created, and old ones reformed under successive short-lived administrations. But this process is largely over. The directly elected president with a strong popular mandate is in power. The new institutional framework for economic policy-making is in place. Macroeconomic stability has been restored. Although growth has yet to return to pre-crisis levels, by 2004 per capita income and poverty incidence had recovered to levels prevailing in the mid-1990s, and in the circumstances economic recovery has arguably proceeded about as quickly as could reasonably have been expected.

Number: 1 _eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1748-3131.2007.00058.x