President Unveils Final Budget Ahead Of Spring 2024 Election

Indonesian President Joko Widodo ('Jokowi') is delivering the annual budget speech, following on from his state of the nation address earlier today. This is the final budget Jokowi will present ahead of the 14 Feb 2024 presidential election, in which the incumbent is term-limited from running again. Jokowi: "Fiscal and economic policies must be able to address global challenges...Food and energy security is important, defence industry must be competitive."

• Jokowi: "2024 GDP growth expected at 5.2%...2024 inflation to be managed at 2.8%"
• Jokowi: "2024 budget to assume rupiah exchange rate at around IDR15,000/USD. 2024 budget to assumed 10-year bond yield at 6.7%.2024 budget to assume Indonesian crude price avg at USD80/bbl. 2024 oil lifting seen at 625k/bpd. 2024 natural gas lifting seen at 1.03m/BOEPD."
• Jokowi: "2024 budget deficit proposed at 2.29% of GDP or IDR522.8trn.
• The current frontrunner to succeed Jokowi is incumbent defence minister and defeated challenger in the 2014 and 2019 elections, Prabowo Subianto. There has been speculation that Jokowi has been working behind the scenes to promote the candidacy of Governor of Central Java Ganjar Pranowo, who hails from Jokowi's centre-left PDI-P party in order to protect his legacy in office.
• However, with Prabowo leading in polling, in today's address Jokowi made efforts not to appear to take sides, simply saying the next leader will have “To take difficult decisions and unpopular decisions. Therefore, in my opinion, the leader must have public trust because trust is one of the determining factors.”