Airlangga Responds as Indonesia's Competitiveness Ranking Falls to 48th in IMD Index

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto has addressed Indonesia’s decline in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, where the country fell to 48th position from 40th. He stated that the government would examine the reasons behind the drop. “We will investigate where the problems lie. We have preparations for a bottlenecking team, so we will look into it from there,” Airlangga told reporters at his office on Wednesday (24/6/2026).

According to him, Indonesia’s competitiveness remains quite attractive, especially in the energy sector. “Actually, the main concern for investors today is energy. Regarding energy and the stabilisation of electricity supply, our country is considered to have a good climate if energy is the main infrastructure for everything, whether for manufacturing, transportation, or services,” he continued. He added that Indonesia’s renewable energy sector is currently in demand, which supports the nation’s competitiveness.

Previously, the Institute for Management Development (IMD) reported that Indonesia’s position in the World Competitiveness ranking had dropped to 48th from 40th in 2025. This decline follows a peak performance two years earlier when Indonesia achieved its best-ever ranking of 27th in 2024. The report outlined five main challenges for Indonesia this year, including increasing global economic confrontation threatening national energy security, relatively stagnant economic growth, adjustments to government budget allocations, limited infrastructure and human resource competencies, and restricted sources of financing. Indonesia’s competitiveness journey over the past five years has been volatile, moving from 44th in 2022 to 34th in 2023, peaking at 27th in 2024, before falling to 40th in 2025 and now 48th in 2026.