"The situation can be brought under control and food prices would not increase anymore," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution said after chairing a coordination meeting on food prices here on Wednesday.
He noted that the prices of foodstuffs such as red chili, onion, cooking oil and rice in several parts of the country have been declining in the past few days.
The government is still monitoring the prices of other commodities, including beef, chicken, and eggs. Although these prices have been declining, they were yet to fully stabilize, he conceded.
"Beef price has shown signs of declining but it is still not stable. The prices of red chili, onion and cooking oil have begun to decline, thanks to the market operations. We have not had a problem with rice prices because these remained relatively stable," he said.
Sugar price has remained high. By the second week of June 2016, it had increased by 5.64 percent because the distribution network was disrupted, leading to limited supplies, he said.
"Bulog (the national logistics board) is making every effort to procure sugar from state-owned plantation companies but because of certain technical problems, it is impossible to move it to other regions. Its efforts have not been very successful but will help to at least ensure that the price of this commodity does not increase any further," he said.
He was optimistic that the governments efforts to stabilize food prices ahead of Lebaran festivities will be fruitful. Consequently, the inflation rate during the fasting month will be lower than that during the same period last year.(WDY)
