It seems Bali’s economic woes throughout the pandemic are behind us after the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced the island’s steep growth in its latest study.
In fact, BPS stated that Bali’s economy for the third quarter of this year grew 8.09 percent year-on-year, higher than the 3.05 percent growth recorded in the previous quarter. The first quarter of this year saw Bali’s economy grow by 1.43 percent.
BPS Chief Margo Yuwono credited international events on the Island of Gods to be among the factors of the economic recovery. The biggest of such events, the G20 Summit, is taking place in Bali this month.
“The main source of [economic] growth in Bali came from accommodations, food and beverages, as well as transportation and storages,” he said in a press conference.
“The third quarter of 2022 [saw] growth because of the improvement of [people’s] mobility and foreign travelers coming in due to international events.”
Margo noted, however, that Bali’s economy is not at the same level as it was prior to the pandemic, citing an economic contraction of 2.93 percent in the third quarter of 2021 to be a factor in this quarter’s immense year-on-year growth. In 2020, Bali’s economy contracted by 12.36 percent in the third quarter.
Nevertheless, it is safe to say that Bali’s economic recovery is on the right track. BPS also recorded an influx of international arrivals after the Ngurah Rai International Airport reopened to flights from overseas in February 2022.
BPS recorded 860,054 international departures in the third quarter of 2022, much higher than the mere 386 departures recorded last year over the same period. As for domestic flights, BPS recorded 1,049,675 departures in the third quarter of 2022, or about four times higher than the 211,929 departures recorded a year before.
