Prabowo Aims for a Middle Class Increase by 2029

President Prabowo Subianto aims to increase Indonesia's middle class during his administration.

This is stated in the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2025-2029, established through Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 12 of 2025.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) defines the middle class as a group of people with expenditures between 3.5 and 17 times the national poverty line.

According to BPS, in 2024, the proportion of this middle class was only 17.13% of Indonesia's total population.

The RPJMN targets an increase in the middle-class proportion to 17.5% in 2025 and 20% in 2029.

"Given the importance of the middle class's role in the national economy, efforts are needed to strengthen the middle class's role through the creation of wider and higher-quality job opportunities, especially in productive sectors such as manufacturing and high technology oriented towards formal employment," as quoted from the RPJMN 2025-2029.

"An increase in the proportion of the middle class creates more diverse consumption needs, including new lifestyle needs, thus potentially increasing purchasing power," it continues.

The government has prepared several programs to support the growth of the middle class, one of which is the Productive Business Card (Kartu Usaha Produktif).

"Through more focused support for productive businesses, this program aims to encourage businesses to survive, grow, and be competitive, thus reducing the risk of falling back into poverty," as quoted from the RPJMN 2025-2029.

"The Productive Business Card is also designed to strengthen businesses for those aspiring to and within the middle class to create innovative, highly competitive productive entrepreneurs who can create new jobs," it continues.