BI And The Government Agree With Five Important Points To Guard Inflation Ahead Of Ramadan

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA Bank Indonesia (BI) together with the government have agreed on five important strategies that must be carried out to return inflation to a normal level of 3 percent plus minus 1 percent this year.

Head of the BI Communication Department Erwin Haryono said the first strategy was to strengthen policy coordination to maintain macroeconomic stability and encourage national economic growth.

"Second, maintaining volatile food (VF) component inflation, especially during the National Religious Holidays (HBKN) so that it is in the range of 3-5 percent," he said in a press statement today, Monday, February 20.

Third, strengthen domestic food security through the acceleration of the implementation of food barn programs, expansion of cooperation between regions. Four, continued Erwin, strengthen the availability of food data to support the formulation of inflation control policies.

"And the fifth is to strengthen communication synergies to support the management of public inflation expectations," he said.

Erwin explained, the Central Inflation Control Team (TPIP) will continue to strengthen policy synergies to continue implementing policies and work programs on the 20222024 inflation control roadmap.

"The policy synergy pursued by the government and Bank Indonesia is included through the implementation of various program innovations to maintain supply stability and smooth distribution," he said.

According to Erwin, inflation in 2022 is much lower than expected. Inflation of the IHK in December 2022 was recorded at 5.51 percent or below the consensus forecast of 6.5 percent after the adjustment of fuel oil prices (BBM) in September 2022.

He added that the efforts taken in its development could control the impact of further fuel price adjustments and lower inflationary pressures, including food prices, in line with the response to maintain price affordability, manage supply availability, improve distribution smoothness and strengthen communication strategies.

In the future, the government and Bank Indonesia at the central and regional levels are committed to continuing to strengthen synergies so that IHK inflation can be controlled in its targets. Strategic programs are also directed to continuously strengthen national food security through increasing productivity and efficiency of domestic food supply chains, as well as improving the quality of food data as an important element for policy formulation," he said.

Erwin also said that various efforts to keep inflation under control in this target are in turn expected to support efforts to encourage sustainable economic growth towards an Advanced Indonesia.