YAKARTA (Reuters) – The Indonesian will propose to parliament to increase its assumption of budget deficit by 2021 in Southeast Asia’s largest economy to 5.2% of gross domestic product (GDP), Finance Minister Sri Mulydrawani Inati said Tuesday.
Speaking after a closet meeting, he said President Joko Widodo sought more budget area next year to address uncertainty about the end of the coronavirus pandemic and the availability of a vaccine.
“With a deficit of 5.2% of GDP, we will have an additional spending margin of Rs 179 trillion ($12.36 billion) that will be prioritized for the economic recovery next year,” Indrawati said.
The government has still specified the total expenditure allocated for its 2021 state budget.
Indrawati has stated in the past that the 2021 budget deficit will be between 4.17% and 4.7% of GDP.
The budget assumes that the economy will grow from 4.5% to 5.5% next year, however, Indrawati said the government would try to succeed in the more sensible end of the target expansion range.
(Report through Maikel Jefriando; written through Fransiska Nangoy; edited through Ed Davies)
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