Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution expects inflation to come in below 3 percent this year, thanks to control over the prices of major commodities.

“I project that this year’s inflation rate will be more or less 3 percent. I think it will be less,” Darmin said on Monday, as quoted by kontan.co.id.

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced on Monday that the consumer price index rose by 0.27 percent in November, slightly less than the monthly inflation of 0.28 percent recorded in October.

The latest figure brought year-to-date (ytd) inflation to 2.5 percent, while year-on-year (yoy) inflation was recorded at 3.23 percent.

A full year inflation rate at or below 3 percent this year would mark a significant decrease from last year’s 3.61 percent.

The minister said he expected GDP growth of 5.17 percent this year – a relatively optimistic forecast, given the global challenges the national economy is presently facing, which have seen the rupiah depreciate substantially against the dollar since the beginning of the year.

He also expressed his optimism that other macroeconomic indicators – the unemployment rate, the poverty rate, the Gini ratio and the human development index -- would show better figures by the end of this year. “We are not exaggerating when we say the quality of our growth is good,” Darmin added. (bbn)