JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s unaudited budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year was 2.29% of GDP, smaller than the finance ministry’s earlier estimate but bigger than that of 2023, official data showed on Monday.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy had previously estimated a budget gap of 2.7% of GDP for all of 2024. In 2023, it had a deficit of 1.61% of GDP.
The deficit forecast for 2025 is 2.53% of GDP.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in her presentation of the data described the 2024 deficit as “a foundation for an effective transition of government”, as Indonesia inaugurated Prabowo Subianto as its new president in October.
Earlier this week, she said the smaller-than-expected deficit could also be a strong foundation for 2025, which economists have cautioned could be an uncertain year due to changing policy in the United States under President-elect Donald Trump.
In Indonesia, financial markets have been monitoring the government’s fiscal policy after Prabowo said he wanted to be more daring with debt to fund his flagship programmes, which include giving free school lunches and significantly expanding farmland.
The “Free Nutritious Meals” programme, which has a budget of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.39 billion), was scheduled to began on Monday.
($1 = 16,180.0000 rupiah)
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Martin Petty)
