President Prabowo highlights Indonesia's strong first-half growth and investment results

During the annual State of the Nation speech, President Prabowo Subianto highlighted that Indonesia achieved a 5.61% growth rate in the first quarter and a 5.45% increase for the first half, marking the strongest performance in the past 13 years. He projected that, with appropriate policies, the country could attain 6% growth by the close of the year. Prabowo stressed that the true measure of success is whether expansion leads to employment and higher living standards for the population.

He pointed to realized investment of 1,931 trillion rupiah in the previous year and 1,010 trillion rupiah in the first half of this year, which together generated over 4 million jobs. The president also highlighted flagship initiatives such as the Free Nutritious Meals program, social assistance schemes, and efforts to increase domestic processing of natural resources, claiming they are already benefiting citizens. However, concerns were raised about food-poisoning incidents linked to the school meals program and questions from economists about whether growth is being felt by lower-income households.