JAKARTA (Reuters): Indonesia will leave enough fiscal room in the 2025 budget for incoming president Prabowo Subianto's multi-billion free school meal programme, while ensuring the country's track record of fiscal prudence, a minister has announced.
The 2025's budget will still not exceed the fiscal deficit ceiling at 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told reporters after attending a meeting with outgoing President Joko Widodo.
Prabowo's free meal programme, a key campaign policy, could cost US$7.7 (RM36.55) billion in its first year, his team said in February. It will cost 450 trillion rupiah (US$28.41 billion) in the final stage in 2029.
"The principal is to provide fiscal room, so that the programme (free lunch) has a possibility to be implemented (next year), but still maintaining the prudency of the budget," Sri Mulyani said, adding that the design is also to maintain market confidence.
The government has targeted the fiscal deficit next year at 2.48% to 2.8% of GDP, compared with the latest outlook of 2.8% of GDP this year.
($1 = 15,840.0000 rupiah) (Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Martin Petty and Devika Syamnath) - Reuters
