Sri Mulyani Calls Withdrawing New Debt Of IDR 132.2 Trillion Until May 2024

Rupiah illustration (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Finance noted that the realization of debt financing or new debt withdrawals until May 2024 was IDR 132.2 trillion, down 12.2 percent when compared to the same period last year of IDR 150.5 trillion.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the withdrawal of the new debt decreased even though tax revenues fell and spending increased due to the government taking advantage of the use of sources from more budget balances (SAL) the previous year.

"Of course my friends ask, how can debt financing go down when state revenues go up even though spending increases? Because we also use it from sources from SAL the previous year," Sri Mulyani said at the Press Conference of our State Budget, Thursday, June 27.

Sri Mulyani menyampaikan penurunan realisasi pembiayaan tidak terlepas dari pengelolaan fiscal yang hati-hati sejak pandemi COVID-19 pada tahun 2020 dan terus dilakukan secara konsisten pada masa pemulihan.

"We continue to maintain and anticipate normalization like this, and this happens, so this is the impact of our caution in maintaining the state budget for so many years, the benefits are felt like today's situation," he said.

In detail, this debt financing mainly came from the issuance of state securities (SBN) down 2 percent when compared to last year's period of Rp144.5 trillion to Rp141.6 trillion in May 2024. This value is equivalent to 21.3 percent of the state budget.

On the other hand, the realization of non-loan financing rose 49.2 percent compared to May 2023 worth IDR 31.9 trillion to IDR 47.6 trillion in May 2023. This figure is equivalent to 37.9 percent of the budget ceiling in the 2024 State Budget of IDR 125.3 trillion.

"The realization of financing on May 31 reached Rp 84.6 trillion, down 28.7 percent when the APBN experienced acceptance pressure, rising spending and extraordinary global shocks. It was a very prudent and anticipatory fiscal management step," he said.

Sri Mulyani said that budget financing management will continue to be carried out prudently and anticipatoryly in order to protect the state budget against global economic uncertainty.

This is a step called very prudent and anticipatory fiscal management. Of course, to be able to protect Indonesian SBN from experiencing great and irrational pressure. This is our way of managing the APBN carefully," he said.

For information, the State Budget in May 2024 experienced a deficit of IDR 21.8 trillion or 0.10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). State revenue of IDR 1,123.5 trillion or a slowdown of 7.1 percent and state expenditures of IDR 1,145.3 trillion or grew 14 percent.