Indonesia's Government Spending Jumps 26% in January

STATE BUDGET - JAKARTA. Indonesia reported a 54.6 trillion rupiah (US$ 3.25 billion) budget deficit in January, the equivalent of 0.21% of its GDP, with total spending jumping 26% from a year earlier due to the costs of President Prabowo Subianto's free meals programme.

The government of Southeast Asia's biggest economy spent 227.3 trillion rupiah in January, up 25.7% from the same month of last year.