"It is still in the middle of the month but seeing June inflation there is an indication inflation in Ramadhan and Lebaran (Eid) will be the lowest in the past five years," he said here on Monday.
He said he did not know yet inflation prediction for July but the projection was relatively low because the government has taken efforts to prevent prices to soar through price controlling policies.
"This means we can control them during Ramadhan and Lebaran because with regard to food needs the price may soar unless they are not followed by adequate demand. Last month we have conducted a market operation," he said.
The finance minister claimed the efforts had effectively curbed inflation, saying that although household consumption declined people remained shopping at Ramadhan and Lebaran.
"Ramadhan and Lebaran are an unusual pattern meanwhile every Lebaran whatever the economic condition is demand is always increasing meaning the government is able to control the demand hike which is only temporary," he said.
With the inflation rate at the calendar year from January to June 2015 standing at 0.96 percent the finance minister believed the rate of inflation by the end of the year would be within the expected range of 4.0 to 4.5 percent or lower than the revised budget's assumption at 5.0 percent.
In June inflation was recorded at 0.54 percent mostly contributed by the increasing prices of food commodities such as egg, rice, chicken and chili.
A National Statistics Agency official, Sasmito Hadi Wibowo, said in July before the Lebaran the government must prepare more food supplies to prevent high inflation.
"Chili is still dominant. The prices of flour and cooking oil are high in July. In Lebaran chicken and cow meat supplies must also be assured although their procurement is not easy," he said.
Sasmito predicted in the period after Lebaran inflation would likely be flat because after that people would start controlling their consumption so that the rate of inflation would not be far from that in July.
"Luckily Lebaran falls in the middle of the month because after that inflation will decline until the end of July. Perhaps the new school year will increase inflation a bit because of school fees, land and air transportation tariff issues," he said. (WDY)
Pewarta: Reporting by Satyagraha: I Gusti Bagus Widyantara
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