JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s finance minister said on Monday that the budget surplus amounted to 107.4 trillion rupiah ($7.10 billion) in the January-August period, equal to 0.58% of gross domestic product, compared to a deficit of 2.26% in the same period. 2021 period.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government still, however, expects to pay significant energy subsidies in the third and fourth quarters of this year.
“We will use all the state’s premium revenues,” she said at a press conference, referring to the funding of the subsidies.
Indonesia’s 2022 energy subsidies are expected to rise by as much as 649 trillion rupiah ($42.91 billion), more than three times its original budget, despite the recent hike in fuel prices.
Government revenue rose 49.8% year-on-year in the January-August period to 1,764.4 trillion rupees ($116.65 billion), which the minister attributed to higher commodity prices and the ongoing economic recovery from the pandemic.
Spending rose 6.2 percent on-year to 1,657 trillion rupees.
Sri Mulyani said the Finance Ministry has sold 95.42 trillion rupees worth of local currency bonds with low returns to the central bank this year, as part of a bond sale agreement between the two agencies signed in 2021.
Under the deal, Bank Indonesia will buy government bonds worth up to 439 trillion rupiah in 2021 and 2022.
(1 dollar = 15,125,000 rupees)
