Indonesia: BI, government team up to control inflation

• Jan 22, 2018

Bank Indonesia and the government agreed on five measures to maintain inflation at between 2.5 and 4.5 percent in 2018 on Monday.

“The meeting of the National Inflation Control Coordination Center has agreed to five strategic measures, including maintaining volatile food prices” said BI spokesman Agusman in Jakarta as reported by Antara..

BI and the government also assured that any measure to control inflation should guarantee food supply, he added.

Among the steps to control the volatile food prices include ensuring food production, strengthening the government’s food stock, distributing rice for the poor on time and developing an accurate database on rice production.

Agusman said the government needed to prepare a policy to anticipate impacts from the introduction of administered prices.

Another measure is to strengthen coordination between central and regional governments as well as Bank Indonesia in controlling inflation, said the BI official, adding that the fourth measure was to strengthen quality control of government policies.

The last measure is ensuring that the central bank is able to control macroeconomic stability, Agusman said.

“The government and Bank Indonesia are committed to strengthening coordination to maintain inflation between 2.5 and 4.5 percent in 2019 and 2 and 4 percent in 2020 and 2021,” said Agusman. (bbn) 

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/01/22/bi-government-team-up-to-control-inflation.html