JAKARTA, Jan 13: Indonesia expects its 2009 revenues to fall due to lower economic growth, finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Tuesday.

“The country’s revenue will decrease by 128 trillion rupiah (11.4 billion dollars), from 985.7 trillion rupiah to 857.7 trillion. This is mainly due to lower economic growth and (the) exchange rate that has changed,” the minister told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The lower expected revenues would result in a higher budget deficit target, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

“We have also revised the budget deficit for 2009 to 2.5 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product from 1 per cent of GDP previously,” she was quoted as saying.

Indrawati said the government will set the base crude oil price target for the 2009 budget at 45 dollars per barrel, down from 80 previously due to sharply lower global crude oil prices.

She said the exchange rate target for the rupiah has been set at 11,000 rupiah, from 9,400 previously.

Indrawati said the economic growth target for 2009 will remain at 4.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent.—AFP