Ambon (Antara Bali) - The discovery of a gold field in Buru district of Maluku province two months ago has triggered local inflation in anticipation of a gold rush.
According to Buru district chief Ramly Ibrahim Umasugi, speaking here on Friday, the inflation was mainly caused by fishermen and farmers who left their jobs to become gold miners.
"The gold field discovery causes people to leave their daily jobs and mine gold due to the higher income," Ramly said.
Since fishermen and farmers left their jobs, food prices doubled, especially for rice, various vegetables, and fish.
Ramly said that the price for a sack of 50 kilograms of rice, usually priced at Rp280 thousand, increased to Rp500 thousand, and for fish, which is usually priced at Rp10 thousand, the cost has doubled to Rp20 thousand.(IGT)
