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omestic car and motorcycle makers say they have no plans to increase selling prices anytime soon despite surging production costs and possible lower sales this year as a result of rupiah volatility against the US dollar.

Keeping existing prices was aimed at maintaining consumer loyalty, they said.

The chairman of the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo), Sudirman M. Rusdi, said on Wednesday that the automakers would keep the current prices.

'€œWe'€™re taking efficiency measures and partnering with component suppliers to offset the rising costs as some components are still imported,'€ he told The Jakarta Post.

Likewise, Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI) chairman Gunadi Sindhuwinata said motorbike makers would likely hold back on any plans to raise the two-wheeler prices despite rising production costs.

Gunadi said there were actual needs for the manufacturers to increase selling prices amid the weakening rupiah against the dollar as around 15 percent of motorbike components were imported.

'€œHowever, I don'€™t think the producers will make that decision [ to raise prices] under such challenging market conditions. A sales-price hike will definitely create a distortion in the market,'€ he said.

Analysts previously predicted that most Indonesian consumers would postpone or cut spending for big-items amid the current economic slowdown and weakening rupiah, which squeezes consumer purchasing power.

The country booked 4.67 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter and 4.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, the lowest level in the last six years.

Motorbike sales, which is an indicator of consumption in Southeast Asia'€™s largest economy, slumped 21 percent to 4.2 million units in the first eight months of the year from around 5.3 million units during the same period last year.

Sales hit 622,000 units in August this year, lower than the usual record of 650,000 units, according to AISI data.

The low commodity prices have resulted in lower income for many plantation workers outside Java, which are among largest potential buyers of motorbikes.

The country'€™s annual motorcycle sales has consistently hit over 7 million since 2010 as consumer purchasing power strengthened on the back of a commodity boom.

The highest sales occurred in 2011 with total sales of 8.01 million units, while the steepest sales decline was seen during the financial crisis in 1998 when motorbike sales declined to 433,549 units from 1.37 million units in 1997.

Recording a similar sales trend, national car sales saw a 15.5 percent decline to 671,679 units in the January-August period of this year from 794,775 units in the same period last year, according to data from the Gaikindo.

Sudirman said his association had revised down its car sales target from 1.2 million units to around 950,000 units this year, which will be the lowest sales record in the last three years.

Sudirman said that recent auto exhibitions, the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) and the Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS), had failed to boost car sales as expected.

'€œPocketed sales value from GIIAS was more or less the same as last year'€™s event at around Rp 5.4 trillion [US$379.6 million],'€ he said.