A lot of things were going right in Indonesia and the Philippines before Covid-19 arrived:

Relatively robust economies
Well-regarded policy makers
The benefit of young, educated populations

Unfortunately, things are going downhill, and fast https://trib.al/nftiehJ 

Indonesia and the Philippines took different approaches to battling Covid-19, but the outcome has been the same:

Deep growth contractions and signs that economic recoveries — when they do come — will be shallow http://trib.al/nftiehJ 

Global growth has incinerated, and the numbers paint a grim picture.

In the Philippines, GDP shrank 16.5% from a year earlier, the biggest plunge ever
Indonesia recorded a fall of 5.3%, the most since the Asian financial crisis http://trib.al/nftiehJ 

Both nations are also vying for the unhappy mantle of the most coronavirus infections in the region. As of Wednesday:

Indonesia has 116,871 cases
The Philippines 115,980 cases http://trib.al/nftiehJ 

Consider some of the preexisting conditions that Jakarta and Manila have:

Poor infrastructure
An underdeveloped healthcare system
Tightly packed metro regions http://trib.al/nftiehJ 

In a cruel twist, neither is anchored in the global supply chains that buttress:

Malaysia
Thailand
Singapore
Vietnam

Even though Indonesia and the Philippines have less exposure to the collapse in global demand, it hasn't offered a big cushion http://trib.al/nftiehJ 

The most obvious lever to pull is fiscal policy.

But Indonesia doesn’t appear up to the task: Only 20% of additional spending is earmarked to address the pandemic. Somehow the government is still clinging to the idea of escaping a full-year contraction http://trib.al/nftiehJ 

While the lapses aren’t as egregious in the Philippines, politicians could be doing a whole lot more.

The amount the Senate has proposed — 140 billion pesos ($2.9 billion) — is far less than what governments elsewhere in Southeast Asia are providing http://trib.al/nftiehJ 

During the last five years, economic growth in the Philippines averaged more than 6% and was projected to surpass 7% in 2020, exceeding long-time emerging-market stars like China and India.

That notion is in tatters http://trib.al/nftiehJ 

Indonesia’s expansion had been remarkably consistent recently, at around 5% a year.

But while Jokowi wanted his second and final term to lift that number toward 7%, anything above zero would now be a big win http://trib.al/nftiehJ