Purbaya Claims S&P Indonesia Credit Rating Cut Issue Was Deliberately Spread to Crash IHSG

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa suspects that certain parties deliberately spread a rumour that rating agency S&P Global Ratings would cut Indonesia’s credit rating. In fact, through an official S&P report announced on 13 July 2026, the rating agency actually maintained Indonesia’s sovereign debt rating at BBB with a stable outlook. However, because the issue of a credit rating downgrade for Indonesia from S&P had already spread on social media, it caused the IHSG to plummet as a market response to the rumour. ‘So earlier this month, if I am not mistaken, there was an issue on social media and in the capital market, with some saying an S&P leak had emerged, that Indonesia would be downgraded. Not just the outlook, but the rating itself,’ Purbaya said during the APBN KITA press conference at the Ministry of Finance, Jakarta, on Tuesday, 21 July 2026. ‘Consequently, that pulled the stock market down sharply at the beginning of July this year,’ he stated. He said that at the time, many parties were indeed deliberately spreading rumours regarding a downgrade of Indonesia’s credit rating by S&P. However, when S&P’s official report was released, the rating agency appeared to have already expressed its confidence in the financial management of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration. ‘So at that time, many were playing with baseless rumours, spread by irresponsible people. But it turned out that what S&P released maintained the BBB rating and a stable outlook,’ Purbaya said. ‘What does that mean? It means they see that everything the government is doing under the leadership of President Prabowo Subianto is moving in the right direction,’ he added. Purbaya observed that the issue of an S&P credit rating downgrade for Indonesia was deliberately linked to the state budget deficit problem. He ultimately confirmed that the calculations or predictions made by the rumour spreaders were proven wrong, though he regretted that market participants had already reacted to the issue.