Sri Mulyani Calls The Government And The DPR To Create A 2023 State Budget To Avoid Market Risks

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati believes that the state budget (APBN) as a fiscal instrument can be a cushion for the potential economic slowdown in 2023.

According to him, the government and the DPR have created the 2023 State Budget to avoid the risk of a very uncertain market due to geopolitical conflicts and inflationary pressures.

"Experience during the pandemic, the DPR together with the government have made the state budget flexible and responsive," Sri Mulyani said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, October 12.

He explained that the presence of the state budget with a budget deficit that was again below three percent of GDP could support the post-pandemic national economic recovery, so that it could potentially strengthen the consumption and investment sectors.

"Interesting capital inflow can have an impact that neutralizes the impact of outflows caused by the Fed's rising interest rate," said the Minister of Finance.

In the latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, the IMF estimates the global economy will be in the range of 3.2 percent by 2022, and will slow down to 2.7 percent in 2023, down 0.2 percent compared to the outlook in July 2022.

IMF economic Counsellor Pierre-Olivier Gourunchas explained that most countries will contract by next year with the largest economies such as the US, European Union, and China will continue the slowdown trend.

"There are three challenges affecting the slowdown, conflicts in Ukraine, inflationary pressures, and the weakening of the economy in China," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia, Dody Budi Waluyo, assessed that Indonesia's economic resilience is still good and growth performance is on the right track, although the IMF has lowered global projections in recent reports.

The causes are the export of commodities that are still the prima donna and the strengthening of the downstream or processed mineral products that are export-oriented.

"We have nickel, copper or copper that used to be not allowed to be exported because it had to go through a smelter first, now we have got the results, and the price has reached 10 times," said Dody.