Sri Mulyani: Healthy and Effective Fiscal
KOMPAS – (8/18/2021) Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said the budget deficit in 2022 was set at 4.85 percent because state spending was still relatively high, ranging from 14.69-15.3 percent of GDP, while state revenue was only around 10.18-10.44 percent of GDP.
According to Sri Mulyani, the government is committed to continuing to manage a healthy and effective fiscal policy so that it can support sustainable and equitable economic growth. “Next year’s primary balance is projected to be between negative 2.31 percent and negative 2.65 percent of GDP. Then the level of government debt ratio will be at the level of 43.76-44.28 percent of GDP.” Sri Mulyani said.
Sri Mulyani also said that the focus of the 2022 RAPBN was economic recovery and structural reforms. Nevertheless, the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic remain an important consideration in designing the 2022 State Budget. Therefore, in the 2022 State Budget, the government still allocates a budget for controlling Covid-19 cases and vaccinations.
The government has also designed an automatic budget reallocation scheme in the 2022 RAPBN so that it is not expected to cause disruption if there is another spike in cases, as happened at the beginning of the third quarter of 2021 due to the emergence of the Delta variant. “Although we hope that it won’t happen, the state budget must prepare in case things happen in ways we did not plan for.” Sri Mulyani said.
Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that in 2022, public consumption is expected to remain the main component that supports economic performance. Public consumption is expected to grow thanks to the strengthening and improvement of social protection programs for the middle to lower economic community. “On the other hand, the government’s commitment to the completion of national strategic projects that have a multiplier effect on the economy will continue to be carried out.” he said. (DIM/BKY)
Source: Kompas Daily. Edition: Wednesday, August 18, 2021. Rubrik Umum. Page 15.
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