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BI tries new ways to keep food prices under control
Bank Indonesia has announced a “national movement” to help push food inflation down to between 5 percent and 6 percent by the end of the year.
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Vendors wait for customers at a traditional market in Tangerang, Banten, on April 3. (AFP/Adek Berry)
B
ank Indonesia (BI) has announced a “national movement” to help push food inflation down to between 5 percent and 6 percent by the end of the year.
BI Governor Perry Warjiyo explained on Wednesday that the National Movement for Food Inflation Control (GNPIP) stipulated strategies to reduce prices of food commodities like chili, onions and eggs as well as to ensure food security.
“Food inflation has a fairly large weight within the composition of public expenditure, so controlling [this driver of] inflation will have a large social impact on people’s welfare,” he said during the GNPIP launch ceremony in Malang, East Java, where the program will be implemented first, before other regions follow suit until the end of the year.
With regard to reducing commodity prices, Perry said the central bank, together with local administrations, planned to conduct market operations in various regions and intensify regional cooperation to distribute excess produce from some regions to regions that needed more supply.
BI, together with local governments, would also plant chili seeds and help set up greenhouses and digital-farming infrastructure in East Java as part of GNPIP’s urban- and digital-farming program.
“[We] hope that, with excellent domestic food supply and distribution [...] the government can push food inflation down to [at least] below 10 percent,” Bank Central Asia (BCA) chief economist David Sumual told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Read also: Inflation soars more than expected, driven by higher food prices
