President Jokowi Urges Regional Heads to Monitor Market Prices

President Jokowi, accompanied by several ministers, arrives at the opening of the 2023 National Coordination Meeting of Regional Heads and Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda) at the Sentul International Convention Centre (SICC), West Java province, Tuesday (01/07). (Photo by: PR/Oji)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo urged regional heads and central bank Bank Indonesia (BI) to continuously monitor the prices of goods and services to early detect price fluctuations.

“Regents, mayors, and governors should often inspect the markets. Please check thoroughly on the ground whether the data provided is in accordance with the facts on the ground,” the President stated when opening the 2023 National Coordination Meeting of Regional Heads and Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda) at the Sentul International Convention Centre (SICC), Bogor regency, West Java province, Tuesday (01/07).

The President ordered the regional leaders to work in a comprehensive manner when monitoring price movement, especially on staple commodities.

“On rice, two days ago I warned the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) about this problem as on the ground, in 79 regions the rice price increased significantly. On eggs, 89 regions also showed a similar increase. On minor things, on tomatoes, 82 regions experienced an increase. On broiler meat, 75 regions experienced an increase,” he asserted.

In addition, the President also ordered regional heads to be mindful when determining tariffs set by regional governments as they could trigger inflation.

“For example, on transportation fares, PDAM (the Drinking Water Regional Agency) tariffs, please determine carefully as they can trigger inflation. So, calculate correctly. If you can still hold it, please hold; if not, then it is okay for the price to increase as low as possible, for example PDAM cannot raise it more than a hundred percent. I have the data,” he added.

On the occasion, the Head of State also ordered regional offices of the Statistics Agency (BPS) to provide accurate data to regional heads.

“Currently, I see that Ministry of Home Affairs, BI, all of them continue to send information to the regions, so all regions have the data,” he remarked. (FID/UN) (FI/HD/MMB)