Indonesia: Minister Sets June Inflation Target at 0.39 Percent

• Jun 15, 2017

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution expressed optimism that the inflation rate in June 2017 would not exceed 0.39 percent.

“Although Bank Indonesia (BI) indicated that the inflation rate in the first week hit 0.5 percent, I don’t think it’s likely. [The inflation rate] will be below the figure,” Darmin said at his office in Jakarta on Thursday, June 15, 2017.

According to him, the optimism is based on declining prices of several commodities, particularly onion and sugar.

Darmin claimed that food prices are generally stable. However, he admitted that the increasing prices of egg and chicken were intentional.

The minister explained that prices of eggs and chicken earlier plummeted as the selling prices set by breeders were too low.

“We let the prices to increase so that the price return to normal, and they [breeders] can live,” he said.

The inflation rate target for this year is lower than last year, which was set at 0.66 percent. The month-to-month volatile foods inflation is recorded at 1.71 percent, and the year-on-year inflation rate for the component is 8.12 percent.

The figures are lower than the average inflation rate for volatile food in Ramadan over the last four years. Meanwhile, the month-to-month administered price inflation is recorded at 0.72 percent or, and the year-on-year inflation rate for the component is 0.50 percent.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/06/15/056884784/Minister-Sets-June-Inflation-Target-at-039-Percent