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View all search resultsAt the mercy of the market
Let us not deceive ourselves. We are paying the price of expensive energy one way or another, just like everybody else.
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Motorists line up at a gas station on March 9 in Surabaya, East Java. (AFP/Juni Kriswanto)
Indonesia appeared quite calm over the past month while the world has been fretting over rising global oil and gas prices.
Asia is “suffering the most” under the crisis, according to market intelligence firm Kpler, whose president told news agency AFP that the continent does not have enough energy resources of its own to cover needs “in big countries like the Philippines or Indonesia.”
Part of the reason for our calmness is a false sense of security that we are somehow shielded from skyrocketing global crude prices, as long as prices at the pump remain unchanged.
Long live our glorious fuel subsidies!
Thanks to those subsidies, most Indonesian buyers of gasoline, diesel and cooking gas do not share the pain of consumers in the region.
Moreover, Bank Indonesia (BI) does not have to deal with an inflation spike like its counterparts in other countries, and our government does not have to fear social unrest over rising living costs.
Everything is nicely under control here, it seems.
