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Stable building materials prices ease infrastructure: BPS
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (center) lays the first stone to mark the start of the construction of the Mama-Mama market in Jayapura, Papua, on Saturday. (thejakartapost.com/Nethy Dharma Somba)
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he Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has reported that the construction materials price index has showed stability this year with a year-to-date inflation of 0.53 percent, smaller than the 2015 inflation of 0.78 percent, due to a stable cement price.
According to BPS data, the cement price was relatively stable in the first half of the year, and only increased 1.43 percent on a year-on-year basis. It even decreased on a month-on-month basis. Compared to May, the cement price in June retreated by 0.25 percent.
“Meanwhile, [the prices of] other materials like aluminum, gravel and steel increased, but not significantly enough to affect the construction price index. This is actually good for the infrastructure sector, because the price will be more stable this year,” BPS head Suryamin said on Friday in Jakarta.
In the past, he further said, the construction materials price used to increase drastically in the first semester, usually by more than 2 percent. But that was before the government ordered state-owned cement maker Semen Indonesia to the cut selling price on January 19, 2015.
According to Suryamin, the low oil price was also the main factor that kept the cement price under control, as energy is one of the main cost contributors in the cement manufacturing process.
Meanwhile, many other construction materials, such as steel, recorded a low price amid the abundant supply in the world market. (ags)
