Government Officially Launches Economic Stimulus, Purbaya Ensures Deficit Doesn't Widen

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadive (Photo: Doc. VOI)

JAKARTA - The government officially launched the 2025 Economic Stimulus Package which includes a total of 17 programs, which are divided into three main groups, namely 8 acceleration programs for 2025, 4 advanced programs that will continue in 2026, and 5 programs focused on job creation.

Meanwhile, the main objective of this package is to strengthen social protection, expand job opportunities, and encourage growth in national strategic sectors.

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadive emphasized that the stimulus would not cause a widening of the budget deficit.

He explained that this step is part of the strategy to optimize budget absorption in order to have a more real impact on economic growth.

"We already have the money we provide, it doesn't mean the deficit is widening, but I can estimate how much the absorption is every year. Last year there were some left, I can count how much is left," said Purbaya at the Press Conference at the State Palace, Monday, September 15.

Purbaya added that this additional budget was focused on utilizing the rest of the state expenditure space towards the end of the fiscal year.

"So instead of the rest, there are only three months left, maybe not used, I use it there (stimulus). So this is only optimizing the absorption of the budget so that it has an impact on the economy without changing the deficit too significantly," he said.

He also said that the impact of this policy on the deficit would tend to be neutral, even positive, because faster economic growth would increase state revenue.

"Later, if the economy grows better, right, if we assume that the taxation ratio is constant, if the GDP grows faster, the tax will be faster too. So maybe the impact on the deficit tends to be neutral to positive," he concluded.