Rice Prices Start To Ease But Chicken Meat And Eggs Rise

Rice and eggs (photo: between)

JAKARTA - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) revealed that rice prices in March 2024 were still experiencing monthly inflation of 2.06 percent and contributed 0.9 percent of inflation.

Acting Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti said that inflation in rice commodities was weakened in line with the main harvest activities which would have an impact on increasing rice production.

"The price of rice is still experiencing inflation because the decline in the planting period followed by the harvest period has an impact on the pattern of rice price formation," he said at a press conference Monday, April 1, 2024.

In the early 2023 period, Amalia said that the price of rice in that period had experienced fairly high monthly inflation, namely from January to March 2023.

Amalia explained that during the period April 2023 to March 2024, rice inflation had experienced a high increase in September 2023 when there was El Nino and restrictions on rice exports in the global market by several other countries, causing price pressure at the global level.

"However, rice inflation gradually subsided, and returned to high level in February 2024 before the main harvest. And in March 2024 the pressure on rice inflation began to weaken along with the start of the harvest," he said.

Amalia said that when the increase in rice prices had started to subside, currently the price of eggs and broiler meat was a contributor to inflation in March 2024.

According to Amalia, the price of eggs and broiler meat is still experiencing high inflation compared to the previous month due to increasing demand for Ramadan.

Despite the increase, Amalia said there was hope that the price of meat and chicken eggs could fall due to the increasing production of corn in March 2024.

"Along with the increase in corn production in March 2024, feed prices have decreased and are expected to have an impact on animal feed prices and the price of broiler meat and broiler eggs in the following months," he said.

For information, inflation conditions in March 2024 amounted to 0.52 percent on a monthly basis or month on month (mom), or higher than inflation conditions in February 2024 which amounted to 0.37 percent.

Meanwhile, during this period there was an increase in the consumer price index or IHK from 105.58 in February 2024 to 106.13 in March 2024.

On the other hand, in March 2024 on an annual basis there will be inflation of 3.05 percent or year on year (YoY). Meanwhile, inflation on a calendar year (March 2024 to December 2023) reached 0.93 percent year to date (ytd).