Government Spending Surges to IDR 493 Trillion in Two Months

The Indonesian government has disbursed IDR 493.8 trillion for government expenditure through February 2026. This amount represents 12.8% of the entire state budget (APBN), significantly higher than the same period last year when only IDR 348.1 trillion (9.6% of the 2025 APBN) had been spent.

The Director General of the Directorate of Economic and Fiscal Strategy, Febrio N. Kacaribu, explained that the surge in state spending at the beginning of the year is part of the government’s strategy to accelerate budget realisation and distribute spending more evenly throughout the year.

Febrio noted that by the end of February alone, government spending growth had reached 41.9% year-on-year. According to him, this growth is also influenced by a relatively low comparative base from the previous year.

“For the first quarter, we know that our spending in the first quarter will be very strong. By the end of February alone, growth was above 40 per cent. Why? Because last year could also be considered a low base,” Febrio stated during the APBN KiTa press conference on 12 March 2026.

Additionally, Febrio explained that the government has deliberately changed its strategy for managing state spending to prevent funds from clustering at year-end, a pattern that had frequently occurred previously.

According to him, spending patterns from the first quarter through the fourth quarter will be smoothed to ensure consistent economic impact throughout the year.

“As a result, compared to usual practice, there has indeed been an acceleration in spending. That’s why the deficit in February is 0.5% of GDP, precisely because our strategy for managing the state budget has changed compared to previous years,” he stated.

On the revenue side, the government is seen as having fiscal room because state revenues are growing strongly, particularly from taxes which increased 30.4% to IDR 245.1 trillion through February 2026, compared to IDR 188 trillion in the previous year.

With this strategy, the Ministry of Finance is targeting that economic growth can maintain the momentum from the fourth quarter of 2025, which stood at 5.39%, or increase to 5.5% in the first quarter of 2026.

“We expect it to be quite strong in the first quarter, continuing the momentum from the fourth quarter of 2025, which was 5.39%. So with 5.39% we hope this can be at 5.5% or higher in the first quarter of 2026,” he stated.