Vietnam Survived a War. Indonesia Survived a Crash. Who Won?

In 1995, the average Indonesian was almost twice as rich as the average Vietnamese, measured in GDP per person (adjusted for prices). In 2025, Vietnam moved ahead for the first time. So how did Indonesia lose to Vietnam? This is the sequel to "How did Philippines lose to Vietnam?" →    • How did Philippines lose to Vietnam?   In August 1995, President Suharto watched an airliner built in Indonesia take off on its first flight in Bandung. The man behind it, B. J. Habibie, wanted planes made at home to connect a country of thousands of islands. In 1993, the World Bank had named Indonesia one of eight "high-performing" Asian economies. If you had to bet on which country in the region would end up richest, you would have picked Indonesia. Then came the Asian financial crisis. In July 1997, the rupiah started to fall, and by June 1998 it had lost 85 percent of its value. On a single day in November 1997, the government closed sixteen banks. On 15 January 1998, Suharto signed a letter to the IMF, and one of its promises was to stop the state money for Habibie's aircraft projects. Four months later, after 32 years in power, Suharto resigned. In 1998, Indonesia's economy shrank by 13 percent, while Vietnam grew by almost six. After the crash, Indonesia sold more and more of what it dug out of the ground, coal, oil and gas, while Vietnam filled its factories, from Samsung's phone factory in 2009 to Apple's suppliers. Indonesia tried to bring the work home with bans: the nickel ore export ban brought smelters and a fight with the European Union at the WTO, and the ban on the iPhone 16 brought Apple's promise of research centers. And the honest part: Indonesia's whole economy is still almost three times the size of Vietnam's, and since 2000 it has grown by almost five percent a year. Vietnam simply grew faster. The Indonesia vs Vietnam economy story, told through the map. Subscribe to Wealth Outliers for more places whose maps explain their money. CHAPTERS 0:00 Indonesia was almost twice as rich 0:46 1986: the plane and the plan 2:58 1997: the crash 5:26 Digging, not building 6:41 The nickel ban 7:40 Apple and the factory next door 8:58 The answer SOURCES World Bank World Development Indicators: GDP per person (constant 2021 PPP, current PPP, current US$), GDP growth, population, manufacturing share, exports by product IMF World Economic Outlook (Oct 2026); IMF Letters of Intent and Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, Indonesia (31 Oct 1997, 15 Jan 1998); IMF, "The IMF, 1990–1999: Country Perspectives" (2012); IMF Working Paper 01/52, "Indonesia: Anatomy of a Banking Crisis" (2001) World Bank, "The East Asian Miracle" (1993); World Bank, Indonesia Country Economic Memorandum (1987); World Bank, "Vietnam: Deepening Reform for Growth" (2001) Bank Indonesia (history; Governor Syahril Sabirin, 29 Mar 1999, via BIS); Widjojo Nitisastro, "The Indonesian Development Experience" (ISEAS) U.S. Geological Survey, Indonesia minerals yearbook; USITC, "Nickel and Indonesia" (2021); WTO dispute DS592; Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (2 Sep 2019); Cabinet Secretariat of Indonesia (10 Aug 2023); Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) Human Rights Watch, "Indonesia Alert" (18 Feb 1998); Andreas Harsono, The Nation (22 Feb 1998) United Press International (10 Aug 1995); ANTARA (21 May 2018); Kompas (2016, 2020); The Jakarta Post (2011, 2013, 2014, 2025); Associated Press (17 Apr 2024); Reuters (2025); Al Jazeera (11 Jan 2014); Tuoi Tre News (Jan 2025); Vietnam Government Portal (28 Oct 2009) MAPS, IMAGES AND SOUND Terrain data: Mapzen / AWS Terrain Tiles (SRTM, GMTED, ETOPO1 and others). Map data: Natural Earth (public domain) Logos (Apple, Samsung, IMF, WTO and the 1997 banks): Wikimedia Commons, used for identification only Sound effects: Freesound and Kenney (CC0), Sonniss GDC Game Audio Bundle, Pixabay, and free sound-effect uploads on YouTube MUSIC Music from Pixabay: Universfield, MiroMaxMusic, OceanFrameMusic, YuraSoop, ondrosik Savfk - The Age Of Wood is under a Creative Commons BY 3.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...    / savfkmusic   Music powered by BreakingCopyright:    • 'The Age Of Wood' by Savfk 🇮🇹 | Cello Musi...   Narrated with an AI voice. Illustrations, figurines, the country characters and some short clips are AI-generated, not archival footage. This is not investment advice. #indonesia #vietnam #economichistory #economy