President Prabowo: National Wealth Outflow Causes Rupiah to Weaken

President Prabowo Subianto stated that the rupiah’s weakness is caused by national wealth continuously flowing out of the country. “If people now say our rupiah is weak for this or that reason, it is because our wealth is leaving. If our blood drains out every day, eventually our body will collapse,” the President said in his speech at the closing of the National Alim Ulama Deliberation and Nahdlatul Ulama Grand Conference 2026 in Bangkalan, East Java, on Tuesday. The President explained that the term to describe the constant leakage of national wealth flowing out of Indonesia is net outflow of national wealth. According to international data, Prabowo noted, Indonesia has actually recorded a trade surplus for 17 of the last 22 years. However, the President lamented that a large portion of the USD 436 billion trade surplus, specifically USD 343 billion, was immediately channelled back abroad by capital owners. The Head of State said this imbalance leaves very little real funds to settle domestically. Prabowo affirmed his commitment to changing this misguided economic system to safeguard domestic interests, in line with the oath he took at his inauguration. “What is happening in Indonesia is that the nation’s wealth is flowing out, going abroad,” Prabowo reiterated his economic premise. Over the past two decades, the rupiah has fluctuated and weakened against the US dollar. In the mid-2000s, the rupiah was around Rp9,000 per US dollar. The exchange rate was battered by global financial market turmoil in 2013, the COVID-19 pandemic, and recent global geopolitical conflicts, which pushed the rupiah past its all-time low beyond Rp18,000 per US dollar.