Indonesia revises 2015 budget assumptions, sees 5.7% growth and US$60 a barrel oil

[JAKARTA] Indonesia's parliament has agreed on changed assumptions for revising its 2015 state budget, including slightly slower growth and higher inflation than were assumed in September, the head of its budget committee said on Friday.

The new assumption for growth is 5.7 per cent, compared with the 5.8 per cent used when the previous government in September presented the initial 2015 budget.

On Thursday, the statistics bureau reported that economic growth in 2014 was 5.02 per cent, the lowest since 2009.

Ahmadi Noor Supit, committee head, said the parliament's budget committee and the new government also agreed to base the revised budget on annual inflation of 5 per cent, higher than the 4.4 per cent assumed in September.

The newly assumed average oil price is US$60, far below the US$105 figure used in September.

The yield of government's three-month treasury bills at 6.2 per cent, from 6.0 per cent in September, and an average rupiah exchange rate 12,500 per dollar is now assumed, compared with 11,900 rupiah earlier, Supit said.

The budget body also upheld the energy committee's earlier estimate for oil and gas lifting at 825,000 barrels per day and 1.221 million barrels of oil equivalent per day respectively.

The 2015 state budget revision, which should be the first budget to reflect President Joko Widodo's reform agenda, will be subject to parliament's approval, due later this month.

REUTERS