Kuala Lampur, Jan. 16 -- Hand-wringing over a softer currency often accompanies headlines about fiscal flexibility.

In Indonesia, the two have recently been conflated-suggesting that a weakening rupiah somehow transforms a manageable fiscal adjustment into a looming crisis. This is a category error.

Even if fiscal spending reaches 3.5 percent of the annual budget, as projected by Citibank, it does not mean that Indonesia is losing its financial prudence. 2025 was a year when the Sumatran floods hit 3 provinces in Indonesia; out of a total of 38.

The central government has to spend more than USD 61 Billion by the seventh week of the natural disaster that began on November 25 2025.

Indonesia has to spend more in order to rebuild this in...