SMRC Survey: Bad Assessment Of The Government's Work On Controlling Food Prices Rises

President Jokowi at Baledono Market, Purworejo Regency (Photo: BPMI Setpres/Laily Rachev)

JAKARTA - The survey institute Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) released a poll on public assessments of the work of President Joko Widodo's government in controlling the prices of basic commodities.

SMRC Research Director, Deni Irvani explained, as many as 41 percent of respondents considered the government's work to make the prices of necessities affordable, 23 percent said they were getting better, and 31 percent said there was no change.

"There is a very negative assessment of the performance of the Jokowi government in making prices for necessities affordable. People who assess the current government's performance as worse than last year are more likely to say it is better", Deni said in a virtual survey presentation, Wednesday, March 30.

If we dissect, the trend of the government's poor assessment of the government's work in maintaining the stability of staple food prices rose sharply from the previous three months.

As of December 2021, 27 percent of respondents considered the government's work to make the prices of necessities affordable, 29 percent thought it was getting better, and 39 percent said there was no change.

Deni said that this month's poor assessment of food conditions was the highest since April 2019. "People who perceive the government's work as getting worse rose by 41 percent in the March 2022 survey. This assessment is the worst in the last 3 years", he said.

It is known that this survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews from March 13-20, 2022. The total sample collected by trained data collectors reached 1027 respondents.

The sample was randomly selected from the population of Indonesian citizens aged 17 years and over or already married when the survey was conducted. The survey's margin of error is estimated at 3.5 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.