Minister Purbaya Responds to Unusual Phenomenon at Warteg Eateries

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has spoken out regarding the phenomenon of declining purchasing power in several warteg, where people have started to reduce their purchases of relatively expensive side dishes. Purbaya admitted he was puzzled by the phenomenon, as aggregate data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) still shows fairly good conditions. "I will check again, but we must be careful. I have only just heard about this phenomenon of weak purchasing power in warteg," Purbaya said at the Ministry of Finance on Friday (5/6/2026). He said he will investigate the change in people’s consumption patterns at warteg, where people are currently tending to economise by choosing cheaper side dishes. "I will investigate whether the conditions are really like that. But we have to be careful. Because other aggregate data seems to show rapid growth everywhere. Spending is also still growing rapidly," he continued. Purbaya added that in villages, consumption is still quite high, marked by the fact that several restaurants are still busy. "But if we go to the villages, everything is busy. Yesterday I ate green chilli, it was still busy," said Purbaya. He urged caution in interpreting data, especially data that directly represents conditions in the community. "So be careful interpreting data. I am not against it, I will still check it. But don’t draw a conclusion from one or two places and then mean everything is like that. Not necessarily. I was once criticised by my professors for doing something like that," he asserted. If the investigation results show there is indeed a change in consumption, Purbaya will provide stimulus to the economy. "If it is true that there is a phenomenon of changing consumption in warteg, I will add more stimulus to the economy, which will give additional purchasing power to the community," Purbaya explained. Previously, several warteg traders had become increasingly anxious due to declining public purchasing power, seen from public behaviour of now reducing side dishes as a result of increasingly expensive food prices. Buyers are starting to only purchase side dishes priced below IDR 15,000 to IDR 20,000, such as tempeh-tofu, balado eggs, and various fritters. Buyers are also circumventing this by consuming more vegetables. Side dishes such as fried chicken, beef rendang, beef stew, black squid, and shrimp (fried and balado) have begun to be rarely purchased. Buyers are also increasingly purchasing warteg menus around the IDR 10,000 range, and it has become rare to find those who buy for more than IDR 20,000. This is due to rising food and other goods prices, leading people to tend to reduce consumption.