Indonesia's Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati - Reuters
JAKARTA: Indonesia's state budget was in a deficit this year of 0.7 trillion rupiah ($45.19 million) for the January-October period, equivalent to 0.003% of gross domestic product, as spending catches up with revenues, its finance minister said on Friday.
Total revenues in the same period were 2,240.1 trillion rupiah ($144.62 billion), up 2.8% on annual basis, while total spending was 2,240.8 trillion rupiah, down 4.7%, Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a press conference.
Revenues between January and October were already at 90.9% of the full-year target, while spending in the same period was 73.2% of the total allocation in 2023, the minister's presentation showed.
Before the deficit as of October, Indonesia's state budget at end-September showed a surplus of 67.7 trillion rupiah.
Sri Mulyani said in October that spending would rise significantly in the rest of the year to pay upcoming bills, including the government's fiscal incentives to maintain people's purchasing power.
The minister last month said the budget deficit in 2023 would be below 2.3% due to higher-than-expected revenues. - Reuters
