Airlangga Calls Sri Mulyani Cs For The Inflation Control Meeting Ahead Of Ramadan

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto (center) gave a press statement (Photo: The digital channel of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto today held a joint meeting related to efforts to control inflation ahead of the momentum of Ramadan which will fall in March.

On this occasion, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Governor of Bank Indonesia Perry Warjiyo, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, Head of the National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi, and representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In a press conference, Airlangga said that the government continues to encourage efforts to stabilize food prices in order to keep inflation under control.

"The Central Inflation Control Team (TPIP) together with the Regional Inflation Control Team (TPID) will carry out a strategic agenda to achieve the 2023 inflation target, especially facing national religious holidays, namely Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr," he said in Jakarta, Monday, February 20.

According to Airlangga, the work of TPIP and TPID has proven to be effective in reducing the rate of inflation nationally. This is reflected in the realization over the past year which was lower than the government's initial target.

"In the high level meeting related to central inflation control, inflation in 2022 is lower than expected, where it was recorded year on year at 5.51 percent compared to the consensus forecast of around 6.5 percent after the adjustment of fuel in September 2022," he said.

For this reason, he encourages cooperation between TPIP and TPID together with related elements to be able to continue to achieve the targets set in 2023.

"Some of the things that are done to achieve the target of 3 percent plus minus 1 percent in 2023 in accordance with the state budget are strengthening policies and maintaining macroeconomic stability, encouraging national economic growth," he said.

"We also discussed the volatile food, especially on religious holidays and specifically we talked about the availability of rice and the target to achieve volatile food inflation 3-5 percent this year," Airlangga continued.

To note, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported earlier this month that the inflation rate in January 2023 was 5.28 percent. This level is lower than December 2022 which was 5.51 percent.

Meanwhile, inflation last month was largely influenced by the development of rice prices that soared due to reduced reserves in the market.