T

he government has ensured that there will be sufficient stocks of staple foods to meet the expected surge in demand during the upcoming Ramadhan fasting month and Idul Fitri holiday this year.

 Coordinating Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil said on Wednesday that government records had shown adequate supply of staple food commodities, including rice, sugar, beef, chicken and eggs.

 '€œWe don'€™t expect inflation during Lebaran due to weaker purchasing power and slow disbursement of the state budget. [By preparing enough food] we do not expect further buying power disruptions,'€ he told reporters after a meeting at his office.

 Sofyan added that the government had planned a series of measures to curb price hikes to enable inflation to remain at 4 percent, plus or minus 1 percent, throughout 2015.

The consumer price index rose by 0.36 percent in April, with rice prices seeing deflation by 0.2 percent, driven by abundant stocks due to the harvest season. As of April, year-to-date inflation stayed at 0.08 percent, while the year-on-year rate was 6.79 percent, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

One of the measures would be to channel rice for the poor (raskin) faster than expected to keep rice prices stable ahead of Idul Fitri, which will fall in mid-July, Sofyan further said. The distribution of the key foods will start in May during which there will be two periods of delivery.

At least 220,000 tons will be allocated for the program each month, targeting areas with high necessity, and this aims to curb any price movement in the beginning of July, according to the plan.

Up to present, the affordable rice program has been aimed at 15.5 million households, with each of them only paying Rp 1,600 (12 cents) per kilogram, nearly one-sixth of the market price of Rp 9,000.

Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel also said that the government'€™s rice stock at the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) was in a '€œsafe position'€ of 1.2 million tons, although still lower than the 2 million tons targeted.

'€œBut we see a rising trend and the current stock will be enough to meet the demand for four months,'€ he said.

The current government has revealed its commitment to achieving self-sufficiency in rice in the next three or four years. But, the Agriculture Ministry estimated national unhusked rice output would likely dip by 0.95 percent to 71.28 million tons this year on a long dry season.

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soewandi said that Bulog had bought at least 35,000 tons of rice from farmers on a daily basis up to the end of May when the harvest season concluded.

'€œIt seems that we have had a very good harvest season. We expect stockpiles to be more than enough during the fasting month,'€ she said