Stock Stability And Food Prices Are The Key To Declining Inflation

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Food Agency (NFA) Arief Prasetyo Adi said that stock stability and food prices are the keys to inflation in Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr 2023 which is lower than last year.

"This is the result of collective work. Appreciation for the relevant ministries and institutions, local governments, food affairs offices, BUMN, BUMD, associations, and other business actors who have built collaborations and worked hard to implement various food supply and price stabilization programs during Ramadan and ahead of Eid al-Fitr," said Head of NFA Arief in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, May 3.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) regarding the development of inflation or the April 2023 Consumer Price Index, the inflation of Ramadan and Eid 2023 is in the position of 0.33 percent or lower than Ramadan and Eid 2022 by 0.40 percent.

Arief admitted that various inflation control programs coordinated every week with the Ministry of Home Affairs, all local governments and related ministries/agencies are effective in maintaining the inflation index during National Holidays and Religions (HBKN).

"Especially for the food sector, we focus on monitoring daily food prices both online and down to markets, implementing low-cost markets, facilitating Food Distribution (FDP), operating the SPHP rice market, procuring on time food commodities, and realizing rice social assistance as well as eggs and chicken meat," he said.

Ahead of last Eid al-Fitr, NFA collaborated with relevant stakeholders to implement cheap markets or the Cheap Market Movement (GPM) around 452 times both at the provincial and district/city levels.

Meanwhile, FDP activities were facilitated by the distribution of corn commodities on 7-31 March 2023 from the East Lombok Gapoktan NTB to Kendal breeders in Central Java and the delivery of 1,400 tons of rice to NTT via the sea highway on March 29, 2023.

In addition, NFA also asked Perum Bulog to continue distributing SPHP rice (supply stabilization and food prices) to traditional markets and modern retailers, as well as simultaneously encouraging Bulog to increase the absorption of grain/rice from domestic harvests including the distribution of rice food assistance to beneficiary families (KPM) and egg and chicken meat assistance for stunting risk families (KRS) continued to be boosted until the day before Eid 2023.

BPS itself in its report revealed that the lower inflation in Ramadan and Eid 2023 compared to Lebaran 2022 was influenced by two main aspects related to food.

First, the supply of horticultural commodities that is relatively maintained is supported by harvest activities throughout March-April, where the deflation of red chilies and cayenne pepper reduces the general inflation rate. Second, the contribution of inflation to several food commodities is relatively lower than the Eid moment in the previous year.

The national inflation rate month-on-month in April 2023 was at 0.33 percent, with the contribution of the food, beverage and tobacco sector at 0.09 percent, lower than the transportation sector which had the most rice contribution of 0.11 percent.