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View all search resultsPrabowo vows low budget deficit, rigorous fiscal discipline
President Prabowo Subianto has proposed a low fiscal deficit for the 2027 state budget bill though more efficient spending and higher revenue, even while holding onto an ambitious economic growth target.
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Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa (center) speaks at the 2027 Draft State Budget and Financial Notes press conference in Jakarta on Aug. 14, 2026. (Antara/Imamatul Silfia)
P
resident Prabowo Subianto has proposed a low fiscal deficit for the 2027 state budget bill as his administration seeks more efficient spending and higher revenue, even while holding onto an ambitious economic growth target.
In his much-awaited Financial Notes address before lawmakers and government officials on Friday, Prabowo revealed that his administration’s budget plan foresaw a deficit, or the amount by which state expenditure exceeds state income, of Rp 671.2 trillion (US$37.68 billion).
That would amount to 2.4 percent of the gross domestic product assumed for next year.
“The ideal deficit is as little as possible; the dream is actually a balanced budget,” said the President, adding that the figure was not cast in stone and the government would try to lower it during execution.
The figure is lower than the 2.68 percent of GDP target set out in this year’s state budget.
According to the government’s latest projection, the actual 2026 deficit will come in at a higher rate of 2.85 percent of GDP, which would still be a slight improvement over the 2.92 percent seen in 2025, a hair’s breadth away from the 3 percent legal cap enforced after the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s.
The proposed deficit is part of the fiscal plan to be deliberated at length in the coming weeks, before the budget bill is passed into a law that guides policy execution next year.
