Responding To The 2026 RAPBN, Indef Reminds The Government To Beware Of Food Inflation

JAKARTA - Institute for Development for Economics and Finance (Indef) Economist Eko Listiyanto highlighted the topic of inflation in the 2026 State Budget Draft (RAPBN). He said inflation in general was under control.

However, continued Eko, the government needs to be more specific about the source of inflation. Especially those from food.

"For 2026, we are generally not too worried. The realization of our inflation is around 2.5 percent like the one in the 2026 RABBN which was convicted by Pak Prabowo yesterday. It's just that if we do surgery in the context of the source of the inflation. We are still worried that there will be food inflation," he said in a virtual discussion, Sunday, August 17.

Indef, continued Eko, sees that food inflation needs to be watched out for. Although, he said, there are several achievements in the food sector that have been reported by the government. For example, the government's rice reserves (CBP) reached 4.2 million tons, as well as various efforts directed at food self-sufficiency.

"But the point is to be sure that the food self-sufficiency flagship program is able to suppress inflation," he said.

"So don't let the stock be large, continue to increase production, it will be conveyed like that, but prices will also increase. So what will happen later is that people are confused," he continued.

Eko assessed that if that happened, the public would later deny the data submitted by the government. Therefore, according to him, the government needs to ensure that there is no contradiction to the data with the realization that occurred.

"If that's the case, everyone will wait and see that," he said.

Currently, said Eko, rice prices are one of the stimulants of inflation so that our inflation trend will increase, yes, 2.37 in July. He also hopes to be controlled in the future.

Furthermore, Eko said that if inflation was out of control, it would be difficult for the government to realize higher economic growth.

"Hopefully we hope to be under control in the future, because if food prices are out of control, it will actually be difficult for us to realize higher economic growth, because inflation has been eroded, in food inflation the components are really large in inflation calculations," he said.