Desperate to reverse the slide, he is trying to revitalise his team and his agenda.
Last month, he named former central banker Darmin Nasution as his new Economy Minister and brought former finance czar Rizal Ramli into the Cabinet.
They have wasted no time in promising big stimulus and structural reforms. The trouble is that there is already reason to think this may end up being just more talk.
The slump in commodity prices has hit Indonesia particularly hard and any new stimulus will have to contend with falling tax revenues. Tepid levels of foreign direct investment make Jokowi's plan to spend at least US$20 billion ($32 billion) on infrastructure in 2015 - the most in the nation's history - look fanciful.
Vows to cut red tape and simplify investment regulations look no more realistic, given how many vested interests populate Jokowi's own party. Even hopes of ending Indonesia's power bottlenecks remain a stretch.
The President recently inaugurated a long-delayed power plant, even though the Government has not procured all the necessary land amid protests.
The Administration's many flip-flops are not helping.
Last month, the Home Ministry announced a raft of new requirements for foreign journalists. While they were quickly reversed after a public outcry, the move echoed the mixed signals and often intensely nationalist tone that has emerged from Jakarta lately.
Some investors are voting with their feet.
The currency, the rupiah, is down 13 per cent this year, the weakest since dictator Suharto was toppled by mass protests 17 years ago.
Jakarta, meanwhile, is among Asia's worst-performing stock markets (down 26 per cent).
Shares in the two other economies ravaged by the 1997 Asian crisis - South Korea and Thailand - have lost 10 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.
Jokowi still has plenty of time - four years - to turn things around. How?
The first priority is restoring confidence in his ability to get things done.
The recent Cabinet reshuffle presents an opportunity to take on the nation's notoriously corrupt bureaucracy.
Jokowi has shown flashes of great courage, as when he slashed budget-busting energy subsidies and increased transparency at government ministries. He needs to go further, and bring greater grit to the fight.
Consistency, too, is critical. Along with narrowing the current-account deficit and shoring up the financial system, Jokowi should reverse policies endorsing protectionist laws against mining and technology companies.
He should stop doling out cash to inefficient state enterprises. He must increase regulatory certainty and stop talking out of both sides of his mouth on trade.
Too often the message from the Indonesian Government has seemed to be, "We welcome foreign money, but only on our terms - which, by the way, can change at any moment."
McKinsey & Co thinks Indonesia could become a Group of Seven economy by 2030.
Getting there requires more strenuous efforts to create new manufacturing industries and the hardware - roads, bridges, ports, power grids - to support them.
Jakarta must work harder to diversify the economy away from natural resources. That, in turn, will require bigger investments in education and training.
Dialling back the economic nationalism and embracing foreign capital would help finance these and other upgrades.
On its own, little of what Jokowi or his new team has proposed thus far will restore confidence in an economy that has lost it way.
If he's going to turn things around, they should talk less and do more.
BusinessDesk
