August 2026

In brief · 71 stories · outlook -54 ↓ worse than July · mostly Economy & Environment

No month this year has read worse from outside, and August sits well below July. A deadly quake, weeks of smoke that crossed borders and tighter household money did most of it, against a solar promise, Japanese security money and a neighbour asking to borrow Indonesia's development playbook.

• Household money drew the most foreign attention, with the president's approval down to 51 per cent from 81 in November and, at the end of the month, thousands back outside parliament over corruption and the price of food.
• Analysts abroad kept returning to how much the state now runs and how little arrives: 1,061 of about 80,000 village cooperatives were actually open by June, and a new state company now stands between exporters and their foreign buyers.
• Disaster ran through the month's coverage: a magnitude 7.7 quake off Flores killed 68, and by late August foreign reporters in Kalimantan were counting 3.4 million people at risk of infection from the smoke.
• The big powers all pressed in, from China's account of a naval encounter near Taiwan and warnings against rushing the US trade deal to Tokyo doubling its security aid budget with Indonesia on the shortlist.

Why it matters The thread to follow is money at home, and October is the month to circle. Bank lending loses its state support then, Bank Indonesia gets a governor who has promised to favour growth, and El Nino has not peaked, so borrowing costs and food prices could climb together.