JAKARTA. Although the debt-to-GDP ratio reached 41% in 2021, the Director-General of Finance and Risk Management of the Ministry of Finance, Luky Alfirman, believes that the said number still arrives at the safe range.
According to Afirman, the said number is still below the upper threshold set in Act No. 17/2003 regarding the State Financial, which arrives at 60% of GDP. “The said debt-to-GDP ratio in 2021 of 41% is lower than the projected ratio of 43% of GDP,” he reaffirmed, as quoted in Bisnis.
The said ratio could be maintained due to three beneficial factors. They include the increased commodity prices that boost state income above the target, especially the one coming from taxes. The total state revenue in 2021 reached IDR 2,003 trillion, equivalent to 114.9% of the predetermined target in 2021 State Budget of IDR 1,743 trillion.
Then, another factor is the recovery attempts made by utilising accumulated budget surplus (SAL) as the fiscal pillar, followed by the implementation of the third joint decision statement (SKB III) with Bank Indonesia (BI). In conclusion, the government managed to seize several momentums, which in turn could support the state’s high financing needs. (AM/ZH)