Indonesia rolls more spending for coronavirus

Monitoring Desk

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared a public health emergency over the coronavirus epidemic on Tuesday and said an additional $24.9 billion would be spent to cushion its impact on Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. Widodo said he signed a new regulation that “gives financial authorities the power to take extraordinary steps to ensure public health, save the national economy and the financial system”.

The regulation would waive a cap on a maximum budget deficit for three years, he said. “The government decided that the total additional spending to manage COVID-19 is as much as 405.1 trillion rupiah,” he said adding that this will widen the 2020 budget deficit to as much as 5.07% of gross domestic product, the widest in more than a decade. The stimulus package includes a 3-percentage-point reduction in the corporate tax rate to 22%, he said. Other measures include expanding social welfare to benefit up to 10 million households, food assistance and electricity tariff discounts and waivers, he told reporters. (Reuters)