Michelle Natalia
IDXChannel - The Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Finance Ministry Febrio Kacaribu stated that inflation was under control ahead of Ramadan. The March 2023 inflation rate was recorded at only 4.97 percent year-on-year (yoy), decreasing from 5.47 percent (yoy) in the previous month.
"Various efforts to control food prices ahead of Ramadan by the government have proven to be quite effective in reducing food inflation. The role of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) is also very crucial, especially in ensuring the adequacy and availability of supplies of various staple foods," said Febrio in Jakarta on Tuesday (4 /4/2023).
Volatile food price inflation was able to be significantly reduced from 7.62 percent (yoy) last month to 5.83 percent (yoy) in March 2023.
"Even so, on a month-to-month basis, there has been a slight increase in the prices of some food commodities ahead of Ramadan due to increasing demands. Rice prices are also expected to decline as the main harvest period begins in early March," said Febrio.
Apart from food, lower inflation was also driven by slowing core inflation, which was 2.94 percent (yoy) in March, lower than core inflation in February (3.09 percent).
