Determination Of Emergency PPKM Overshadowed By Decline In Purchasing Power, Core Inflation Only Grows 0.09 Percent

JAKARTA - Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Margo Yuwono said the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the resilience of people's purchasing power.

Moreover, the recent relatively high spike in daily cases has forced the government to implement the Emergency Community Activity Restriction (PPKM) on July 3-20.

"The general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's purchasing power has an impact," he said at an online press conference, Thursday, July 1.

According to Margo, in order to ascertain whether the Emergency PPKM will put further pressure on purchasing power, it is necessary to wait for the records that will occur throughout this month.

"We can't confirm whether it will have an impact on price developments, so we are waiting to see how the policy will affect the economy," he said.

Although he only gave a diplomatic answer, the new Head of BPS, Suhariyanto's successor, who is entering retirement, revealed several important notes.

First, core inflation until the end of June 2021 was only able to grow slightly by 0.09 percent. This means that the economy is in a condition that is not strong enough during the last month.

"In general, conditions in June were maintained even though the core inflation only grew slightly," he said.

Second, Margo also reported that last month there was a deflation of 0.16 percent month-to-month (mtm). This figure is the first deflation that occurred so far this year.

Meanwhile, the deflation book in June was based on observations in 90 cities throughout Indonesia, of which 56 cities experienced deflation and 34 other cities experienced inflation.

"The highest deflation occurred in Kupang (NTT) of 0.89 percent with the main contributors being the decline in water spinach prices, the cost of air transportation fares, and the decline in tomato prices," he said.

Meanwhile, the city with the highest inflation achievement was in Singkawang, West Kalimantan at 1.36 percent, which was caused by an increase in the price of pork, raw tofu, and chicken.