The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its 2021 growth projection for Indonesia and is far less optimistic than the government about the economic recovery as the country faces setbacks with its COVID-19 vaccination program. In its April outlook, the IMF downgraded Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection by 0.5 percentage points to 4.3 percent for this year. That figure is lower than the government’s projection, which assumes GDP growth between 4.5 percent and 5.3 percent. Josua Pardede, an economist at publicly-listed Bank Permata, said the IMF’s downgraded outlook was in line with the country’s slow vaccination rollout compared to other emerging economies, like India and Turkey. “With the slow distribution of vaccines, economic activities in the majority of sectors cannot return to normal, which depresses employme…