Jakarta Statistics Agency reported Monday positive results for the city's tourism, export-import and inflation rates for July and Aug. in its monthly reports.
Djamal, the agency's head, said from January to July, the number of foreign tourists visiting the city was 870,011, an increase of 22.97 percent from the 707,479 who came during the same period last year.
"Jakarta may be able to meet its target of 1.3 million foreign tourists this year if the figures remain stable for the next four months," he said.
"Effective promotion and conducive conditions are the perfect strategies to attract more tourists to the city. We hope the number continues to rise."
The agency recorded that the number of foreign tourists coming through and to Jakarta in July was 151,289, up by 20.01 percent from the 126,663 tourists in June. The number was 24.96 percent greater than last year's number, the agency noted.
According to the agency, the hotel occupancy rate in June was 53.94 percent, a slight decrease from May's 55.2 percent. The June 2008 number was also almost 4 percentage points lower than June 2007, which was 57.84 percent.
As for the city's export and import activity, the agency reported the export value through the city was US$3.18 billion in July, up 5.93 percent from June's $3 billion. It was also 17.67 percent higher than last year's.
The agency recorded $5.72 billion in imports for July, amounting to an increase of 6.54 percent from the previous month's.
Through June, import value was recorded at $36.51 billion, a 90.62 percent increase above last year's $19.15 billion in the same period.
"In spite of the high value of imports, it was still satisfactory because $17.81 billion was used for raw and supporting material, $5.80 billion for capital products and only $1.78 billion for consumption products," Djamal said.
Meanwhile, an increase in the cost of food has brought Jakarta's inflation rate to 0.24 percent in Aug., lower than July's 0.82 percent.
The agency found there were five groups that experienced index increases: Fresh food (0.85 percent); processed food, beverages, cigarette and tobacco-based products (0.43 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel (0.33 percent); health (0.30 percent); and education, recreation and sport (0.49 percent).
"If the administration manages to balance supply and demand, the inflation rate can remain low," Djamal said.
