Indonesia Must Stay Vigilant Against Inflation

Indonesia must remain vigilant against inflation, Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said Friday.
“Now the challenge in Indonesia is volatile food prices, so we need to ensure better logistics,“ Martowardojo said on the sidelines of an annual meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations finance ministers in Bali.
The official Statistics Agency reported last week that annual inflation eased to 6.65% in March from 6.84% in February. Meanwhile, on an on-month basis, the consumer price index fell 0.32% after rising 0.13% in February as the prices of basic food commodities fell during the harvest season. But, analysts expect inflation to pick up again later this year on rising global commodity prices.
The minister characterised the rupiah's recent appreciation against the dollar as normal given other regional currencies are also appreciating. The rupiah has risen nearly 3.9% so far this year after climbing around 4.4% last year.