Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and his ranks of ministers will issue a surprising policy to anticipate the continuing increase in rice prices.

Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency of the Ministry of Finance, Febrio Nathan Kacaribu, said that in general the form of the policy was to maintain people’s purchasing power. “We are currently preparing this, just wait for the announcement,” said Febrio in Jakarta, Tuesday (24/10/2023).

“But indeed we see the risk with the price of rice which is still high. We have imported rice, ensuring that the supply is there. However, we want to be more bold. Later we will wait for more specific policies. This may not be long,” stressed Febrio.

According to Febrio, policies related to anticipating and responding to rice prices will be part of the policy package that President Jokowi is currently preparing in a limited meeting with his line of ministers today. “That’s right, just wait for the announcement after it is formulated,” stressed Febrio.

He emphasized that in the midst of the current global economic situation which continues to slow down, and the high prices of energy and food commodities, President Jokowi continues to provide direction so that the government can maintain people’s purchasing power. Then, maintain economic growth momentum above 5% until the fourth quarter or the end of the year.

“Then in fact we are also looking to 2024 to ensure that we can maintain the growth momentum. Indeed, the risks are still high, but the President’s direction is to maintain people’s purchasing power and also ensure that economic growth momentum is maintained,” said Febrio.

He confirmed that the APBN until the end of this year still has the capacity to provide assistance to people’s purchasing power as in the latest policy package. Moreover, the latest APBN data up to August 31 2023 still recorded a surplus of IDR 147.22 trillion, compared to this year’s design which should have been a deficit of IDR 598.15 trillion.

“We continue to prepare the APBN to be flexible so that at this time we can use the flexibility of the APBN to the maximum. We have done this since 2020, 2021, let alone 2022, so if we say that the APBN is a dampener,” said Febrio.

He also confirmed that with the various latest policies that President Jokowi will issue later to maintain Indonesia’s economic growth trend, the APBN deficit will not widen above the target of 2.84% of GDP in 2023. He estimates that the APBN deficit by the end of this year will only be level 2.3%.

“We still see the deficit heading below 2.3%. So the outlook for the end of the year will still be below 2.3%. So here we have room to maneuver how the APBN can still carry out its role as a shock absorber,” stressed Febrio.

For information, the Food Agency Price Panel shows that the price of medium rice today has turned up again after falling yesterday, Monday (23/10/2023). Today’s premium rice price is at IDR 14,970 per kg, and medium rice has increased by IDR 20 to IDR 13,210 per kg. Data accessed at 12.19 WIB.

A week ago, October 17 2023, the price of premium rice was IDR 14,960 per kg and medium rice was IDR 13,200 per kg. This price is the national daily average at the retail trader level.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(mij/mij)