Indonesia's budget deficit rises
12:05, 18 February 2009
JAKARTA. February 18. KAZINFORM Indonesia's budget deficit expanded to 2.6 percent of the GDP to 137 trillion rupiah (about 11.7 billion U.S. dollars) from that of at the earlier target of 2.5 percent of the GDP, due to the global recession, a paper said here Wednesday.
Director General of Budget Management of the Finance Ministry Anny Rachmawati quoted by Sindo daily as saying that the global recession has declined the state revenue and lead the country to provide stimulus package of 71.3 trillion rupiah (some 6.2 billion U.S. dollars), which all contribute on the deficit expansion.
"State budget deficit this year is big," she said.
The director said that the deficit would be plugged from the unspent budget of last year of 51 trillion rupiah (some 4.28 billion U.S. dollars), the issuance of debts and foreign loans; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
Indonesia has targeted of selling up to 4 billion U.S. global bonds and securing up to 4 billion U.S. dollars fund from foreign lenders such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Japan and Australia.
The government has predicted that economy to grow between 4 to 5 percent this year.