Coordinating Minister For Human Development And Culture Alludes To Structural Congestion: Road Macro Growth, Family Income Remains Fragile

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment (Menko PM) Muhaimin Iskandar assessed that the Indonesian economy could no longer be seen only from the row of statistical figures.

He said, so far Indonesia has been trapped in the euphoria of growth reports for too long, even though the pulse of welfare is in people's daily lives.

When we talk about the Indonesian economy, we are often fixated on the numbers that arise and occur. We are dissolving in the exclusive circle language, proud and feeling afraid when the numbers show sluggish growth," said Muhaimin at the 2026 National Economic Projection Seminar virtually, Thursday, November 20.

Cak Imin, as he is familiarly called, said that based on a report from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), economic growth in the third quarter was 5.04 percent. Meanwhile, the report on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of the Indonesian economy is estimated to grow 4.9 percent in 2026, or higher than the global growth estimate of 2.9 percent.

Furthermore, Cak Imin said that without intending to ignore the views of analysts and economists, Indonesia's economic situation must also be seen directly from the pulse of people's lives.

"It doesn't mean that the statistics numbers are wrong and the opinions of analysts are just an analysis. But it's time for us to see that the Indonesian economy is no longer a series of numbers, but directly from the source of the pulse, namely people's lives," he said.

Cak Imin explained a number of field facts that illustrate the distance between national growth and people's daily lives. Worker income is still difficult to catch up with rising demand prices, farmers and fishermen working with stagnant production patterns, while informal workers live with minimal welfare protection.

"MSME actors who are filled with income anxiety. These are the facts of the situation and the opposition we have faced in the last decade," he said.

According to him, the village is an example of this paradox. The potential is large, but poverty is also rooted. Of the total 23.85 million poor people, 2.38 million of them live in extreme poverty, and half are in the village.

"We also see that the ratio continues to decline, currently 0.38 but at the same time we also find that 1 percent of the richest people in the country control almost 50 percent of our total national wealth," he said.

According to Cak Imin, this condition is a structural congestion, where economic growth is not felt by all levels of society.

The makro grows, the micro survives, the pdb goes up but the income of economically fragile families develops but access is not always even. This is what I call structural congestion, the economy doesn't drip from top to bottom, it stays in the pockets of some people, while others stay alive with empty pockets," he said.

He also highlighted the poverty reduction approach, which so far the state's presence has only provided basic protection without mobilizing long-term empowerment.

"The state only acts as a basic social protection provider but does not guide empowerment. On that basis, President Prabowo Subianto repeatedly emphasized that we need to improve the national economic design into growth from the village and from below," he said.