Prabowo's Approval Plummets as Economic Sentiment Tanks in Indonesia, SMRC Survey Shows

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — Public approval for Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has suffered a steep collapse, plunging 30.1 percentage points over the past nine months as deep economic anxiety grips Southeast Asia's largest economy.

According to a nationwide poll released Sunday by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC), one of Indonesia’s premier independent polling institutes, the president's approval rating fell to 51.1% in July 2026, down sharply from 81.2% in November 2025.

Deteriorating public sentiment in Indonesia signals growing headwinds for the administration's policy agenda and economic strategy. For foreign investors and financial markets, a rapid erosion of executive political capital could complicate fiscal reform execution, consumer confidence, and broader macroeconomic stability across regional supply chains.

The public's appetite for economic optimism has almost completely evaporated over the same nine-month period. Nearly half of the nation — 49.4% of respondents — now rate national economic conditions as "poor" or "very poor," up from 22.7% in November 2025 and 31.7% in early March 2026.

Only 15.7% of citizens view the current national economic landscape positively, while 33.9% characterize conditions as average. SMRC Executive Director Deni Irvani emphasized that negative sentiment has officially become the dominant public view rather than a minority sentiment.

"This approval rating doesn't come out of nowhere. It stems from the public's critical evaluation of current conditions," SMRC Executive Director Deni Irvani said during the broadcast presentation of the survey results.

In the detailed breakdown of the presidential evaluation, only 4.8% of citizens reported feeling "very satisfied" with the president's performance, while 46.3% said they were "fairly satisfied". Meanwhile, dissatisfaction surged, with 35.0% reporting they were "somewhat dissatisfied" and 11.9% stating they were "completely dissatisfied".

Surging Discontent Hits Seven-Year Peak

The steep rise in economic dissatisfaction represents a critical turning point recorded by SMRC in national economic tracking. Researchers noted that negative evaluations accelerated sharply between March and July 2026.

The nationwide survey conducted between July 5 and July 19, 2026, sampled 749 randomly selected voters across Indonesia through a mix of phone and face-to-face interviews. The poll carries a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, meaning a minimum variance of 7.4 percentage points is required to signify a statistically meaningful shift.

As public discontent mounts over living costs and economic momentum, the administration faces mounting pressure to deliver tangible relief before eroding public trust impacts governance and investor confidence further.