‘Good move’: Indonesia’s finance minister switch will ease investor jitters
JAKARTA, Sept 14 (Reuters) – The sacking of pro-growth, outspoken Indonesian Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa and President Prabowo Subianto’s decision to elevate his deputy, Suahasil Nazara, to the country’s top finance job will likely reassure investors after months of concerns about policy credibility.
Suahasil’s appointment on Monday – Prabowo’s third finance minister in less than two years – comes just six weeks after another major shake-up in Indonesia’s policymaking circle, when Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo unexpectedly resigned in July.
A technocrat who had served as deputy minister since 2019, Suahasil, 55, is a familiar figure to analysts and investors. Several said his promotion appears aimed at restoring confidence in a ministry that has faced mounting scrutiny over fiscal discipline and policymaking.
“Replacing the finance minister is a good move,” said Richard Borsuk, an adjunct senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University.
“The market should like it and rating agencies would already know and like Nazara,” he added.
Purbaya was ousted just a year after his shock appointment replacing long-standing and widely respected finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in September 2025. Sri Mulyani’s abrupt dismissal raised questions about the fiscal prudence that had underpinned investor confidence in Southeast Asia’s largest economy for years.
While Purbaya’s tenure saw Indonesia’s economic growth climbing to the highest in three years, he also oversaw the country running a wide budget deficit and credit rating outlook downgrades by Fitch and Moody’s for unpredictable policymaking.
His outspoken style and unconventional policies had also failed to calm markets amid jitters about fiscal overspending and central bank interference.
“The new finance minister worked closely with Sri Mulyani for years and would have learned a lot from her,” Borsuk said.
Angus Mackintosh, ASEAN specialist at advisory and research firm Aletheia Capital, said the appointment should provide “a more stable and predictable economic policy making backdrop for Indonesia and reassure both bond and equity markets.”
Suahasil holds a doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and previously worked on government policies on fiscal decentralisation and poverty reduction. He also headed the finance ministry’s fiscal policy office between 2016 and 2019 in a role that included formulating tax policies.
