Airlangga Claims Government Stimulus to Boost Economic Growth 2025

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto explained that the performance of the national economy in 2025 showed positive results.

For information, Indonesia's economic growth throughout 2025 reached 5.11 percent or higher than the achievement in 2024 which was at the level of 5.03 percent.

Meanwhile, the national economy in the fourth quarter of 2025 grew 5.39 percent year on year (yoy), or increased compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 which grew 5.02 percent.

Airlangga said that the 2025 economic growth was considered relatively good when compared to the conditions of a number of other countries, and was the highest achievement in the last four quarters.

"This is compared to several countries where the situation is relatively good and if we look at the quarter-by-quarter it continues to be good and this is the highest of the last 4 quarters," he explained to the media, Thursday, February 5.

He added that this growth was supported by major sectors such as the processing industry which grew 5.4 percent with a large contribution to the economy.

In addition, the trade and agriculture sectors also recorded quite high growth.

"Well, this is also growing relatively high and this represents more than 40 percent of our economy and coupled with the consumption sector is also positive," he explained.

According to Airlangga, various stimulus programs launched by the government have begun to have a real impact in the fourth quarter.

On the other hand, Airlangga said that for 2026, the government has prepared a number of stimulus policies, including in the transportation sector, distribution of social assistance, and regulation of work from anywhere (WFA) policies.

He assessed that the increase in community mobility also encouraged consumption, and this was an important lesson for the government.

"This is something we can learn from there. This growth also creates jobs, which is around 1.3 million, so there are more people working. Then if we look at the numbers related to the Gini ratio and others are also relatively good," he said.

Responding to the 2025 economic growth of 5.11 percent which was considered anomalous given the lower tax revenue and bank credit distribution compared to the previous year, Airlangga stated that increasing tax revenue remained the government's homework.

He emphasized that the optimization of the tax system continues to be discussed with the Minister of Finance so that state revenues are not at the one digit level, with various improvement steps being carried out.

"Of course we have discussed with the Minister of Finance how the cortex is optimized. Because we don't want a single digit tax revenue. Well, this is a lot of steps that are being discussed and being improved," he said.

Regarding the difference between the achievement of economic growth in 2025 and 2024, he explained that the increase in the number of Special Economic Zones (KEK) also contributed to the increase in the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In addition, Airlangga said that the growth of the industrial sector, which reached 5.4 percent, showed a stronger expansion compared to the previous year, as did the agricultural sector, which experienced a significant increase and had an impact on labor absorption.

"Plus we give a lot of flexibility such as VAT, DTP, then we also give salaries below 10 million borne by the government PPH-nya," he explained.

According to him, this series of stimuli is the main differentiator compared to the previous year.