Airlangga: Middle East Conflict Affects Fitch's Negative Outlook on Indonesia's Debt Rating

Jakarta — Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that the geopolitical escalation in the Middle East has been one of the factors behind Fitch Ratings’ decision to revise Indonesia’s debt rating outlook from stable to negative. Fitch, however, has kept Indonesia’s debt rating at BBB, or investment grade. “But what matters is that Indonesia remains investment grade. Going forward, Fitch’s warnings are something we will study,” Airlangga said at the ‘National Semiconductor Talent Briefing 2026’ event in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, 5 March 2026.

Therefore, Airlangga assured that the government would strengthen several fundamental aspects of the economy, especially on the revenue side. Because in his view, Fitch’s rating is a warning about several issues that still need to be improved by the Indonesian government. “It is (Fitch Ratings) to remind Indonesia what we must learn going forward. And of course, some areas we see needing strengthening are in terms of revenue,” he said.

Specifically regarding state revenue, Airlangga noted that the government already has Cortex as one of the strategies to boost income to the government’s coffers. Therefore, he emphasised that the relevant ministries and agencies will continue to oversee the implementation of Cortex, as a technology-based tax administration system aimed at raising the tax ratio to support the fiscal architecture in place. “The government understands this. Therefore, one of the ways (to increase state revenue) is Coretax, which was pushed at the Ministry of Finance yesterday,” he said.