Indonesia’s 2022 fiscal deficit seen at 2.49% of GDP-president

JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia’s fiscal deficit for the whole of 2022 will likely be 2.49% of gross domestic product, much smaller than deficits in 2021 and 2020, President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday.

The deficit forecast was also below authorities’ latest projection of a gap of around 3% of GDP and compared with a 4.5% deficit target in the revised 2022 budget.

Last year’s fiscal deficit was 4.6%, while 2020’s was 6.1%.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Tuesday said in the year to Dec. 14, the government ran a fiscal deficit equal to 1.22% of GDP, but spending is still expected to rise in the last few days of 2022 for some fuel subsidies and infrastructure projects.

Indonesia has been enjoying an export boom amid high global commodity prices this year and this has also bolstered tax collection.

Economic recovery from the pandemic and a hike in value added tax (VAT) rate have also supported government revenues, Sri Mulyani said.

The president also said with COVID-19 cases declining, Indonesia may lift all of its remaining pandemic-related mobility restrictions by year-end.

(Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe and Fransiska Nangoy; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Martin Petty)