The surprising stagnation of Asia’s middle classes
It could shake up everything from profits to politics
In August Amalia Adininggar, Indonesia’s statistician-in-chief, appeared in parliament with bad news. The country’s middle class had shrunk. Between 2021 and 2024, 6m Indonesians had fallen into the “aspiring middle class”, an official euphemism for being a stone’s throw away from poverty. The middle-class share of the population had fallen to 17% from 22% before the pandemic. Asked about the grim trend the next day, Joko Widodo, then the president, deflected: “This issue exists in almost all countries.”
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Middle-class malaise”
Asia November 23rd 2024
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