JAKARTA: Indonesia’s parliament on Thursday (Sep 29) approved President Joko Widodo’s 3,061.2 trillion rupiah (US$200.73 billion) budget for next year, with a fiscal deficit of 2.84 per cent of gross domestic product, the deputy house speaker Rachmat Gobel said.
The 2023 budget aims to consolidate fiscal positions after the deficit was allowed to stretch beyond a legally-mandated 3 per cent ceiling in the last three years for emergency response to the pandemic.
Indonesia’s economic growth and inflation targets for next year were set at 5.3 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively. Total revenues were approved at 2,463 trillion rupiah, slightly higher than proposed by the president last month at 2,443.6 trillion rupiah.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy has been recording a trade surplus every month since May 2020, on the back of strong commodity exports and the government expects to end this year with growth of about 5 per cent.
Bank Danamon economist Irman Faiz said that spending and revenue targets were “realistic”, but inflation could be higher than 4 per cent due to ongoing disruptions in global supply chains.