Jokowi Asks Local Governments To Take Advantage Of Unexpected Budgets For Policies To Repress Inflation

President Jokowi. (Between)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has asked local governments to use unexpected budget items in their respective APBD for various policies needed to suppress the inflation rate in their region.

To provide a legal umbrella, Jokowi ordered the Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian to issue regulations.

"I have ordered the Minister of Home Affairs to issue either a decree, or a circular stating that the unexpected budget can be used to settle inflation in the regions," he said at the opening of the 2022 National Coordination Meeting for Inflation Control at the State Palace, Jakarta, Thursday, August 18, broadcast live on the channel. Presidential Secretariat YouTube.

The consideration of using the unexpected budget for policy needs to contain the inflation rate was acknowledged by President Jokowi during one of his working visits to Merauke, Aceh Province.

The President admitted that the local regional head had complained about how in his area there was an abundant stock of rice at a low price in the range of Rp. 6,000 per kg, but other regions experiencing rice shortages did not take it there because of transportation costs.

"I checked down, it was true that the price was Rp. 6,000. There are other areas that lack rice, why not take it from Merauke which is still cheap? The problem is that transportation is expensive," said President Jokowi.

"I conveyed yesterday at a meeting to the Minister of Home Affairs, that the transportation budget should be unexpected and can be used to cover transportation costs for existing goods," he continued.

According to the President, this could be one of the steps to meet the demand and availability of supplies in order to suppress the inflation rate due to the food group, considering that Indonesia is a large and large country.

For this reason, the President asked all regional heads, including regents, mayors, and governors to cooperate with the Regional Inflation Control Team (TPID) and the Central Inflation Control Team.

The President emphasized that the inflation control team at the center must be able to map while connecting the needs and availability of supplies for these food groups in the regions.

"Ask in our area what is the price increase, which causes inflation. It could be rice, it could be. It could be red onion, it could be. It could be chili. The Central Inflation Control Team checks which areas have an abundant supply of chili or an abundant supply of rice, then connected. It must be connected," he said.

The President believes that if all regional governments continue to work in synergy with the inflation control team, they will be able to reduce inflation to below 3 percent.

Governor of Bank Indonesia Perry Waluyo said that the inflation rate in Indonesia as of July 2022 reached 4.94 percent, exceeding the upper limit of the target of 3 percent plus minus 1 percent.

Perry explained that this was mainly due to the high inflation in the food group, which was volatile at 11.47 percent, exceeding the projection of 5-6 percent.