Prabowo's Concerns about Oil Prices, Purbaya Emphasizes that the State Budget is Still Stable

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa (photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa recounted his experience when he was asked by President Prabowo Subianto about the sharp rise in world oil prices approaching 100 US dollars per barrel due to the conflict in the Middle East.

He explained that he had been invited to attend a meeting at the President's residence in the Kertanegara area, South Jakarta, and during the meeting, the President expressed concern that the increase in oil prices could potentially disrupt the stability of the state budget.

Purbaya said that when asked about the condition of the state budget, he emphasized that the state budget was still in a safe condition, even if the price of oil reached 100 US dollars per barrel, because the calculation had been carried out carefully.

"Asked by the president how the state budget was, it was safe, sir, if it was 100 US dollars?, it was safe sir, we had counted up to 100 US dollars, it was safe," he said at the inauguration of officials in the financial ministry environment, Friday, March 27.

Furthermore, he said that the government had actually prepared various steps to protect the state budget from the pressure of rising oil prices, however, these efforts have not been well socialized to the public, so many parties, have not fully understood these steps.

"There are actions that we can take to do that, secure it, and it has not been well publicized to the media. I think I'm talking about only half of it, it seems they don't understand much," he said.

According to him, the Ministry of Finance team has the ability to keep fuel prices stable without burdening the state budget.

"With the courage of these people we can keep the price of fuel at the current level without endangering the state budget. So our team is good, it's just that it's still underappreciated. We are still campaigning that we are better than our neighboring countries," said Purbaya again.

Based on this, Purbaya also assigned the newly appointed Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance, Robert Marbun, to improve the quality of communication to the public regarding the resilience and stability of the State Budget.

He emphasized that despite the challenging situation, the government remained calm and took measured steps, without making irrational or uncontrollable calculations.

"So with this kind of situation, we never panic, we are calm outside, even if we panic. But we approach it in a measured way, there is never a strange number that we can't count," he said.