JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa stated that foreign media The Economist should praise Indonesia because the government has been able to maintain economic stability and control the state budget deficit.
Purbaya said the government's debt was still in the range of 40 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while countries in Europe had a much higher debt level of almost 100 percent of GDP compared to Indonesia.
"They ask to see how the European countries' policies are in deficit, how much their debt is. It is close to 100 percent of all GDP. We are still 40 percent of GDP. We are still good, The Economist should praise us," said Purbaya as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, May 18.
Currently, Indonesia's fiscal deficit can be controlled below 3 percent of GDP. Purbaya emphasized that Indonesia's economy is in good condition and has no problems.
"So, there is no problem. Now we are calculating how much the deficit is," he said.
Purbaya emphasized that the government had carefully calculated to carry out a number of priority programs, including Free Nutritious Meals, and the Red and White Village Cooperative.
According to him, the budget has been appropriate for each position, so there is no need to worry about disturbing the stability of the national economy.
"We have calculated everything well, including for MBG, for other programs without disturbing other development programs. So we arrange it well, including subsidies of all kinds," he added.
The British foreign media criticized a number of government policies that were considered risky for the stability of the Indonesian economy and democracy.
Some of them are state spending which is considered too large and has the potential to burden the state's finances, the risk of weakening fiscal discipline due to government priority programs that require large budgets, to state intervention in national economic activities.
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