For its part, the Trade Ministry held a coordination meeting with heads of provincial trade offices across Indonesia to anticipate a potential rise in the prices of basic commodities, the Trade Ministry said in a press statement released here on Wednesday.
"The Trade Ministry makes every effort to anticipate as early as possible any potential rise in the prices of basic commodities ahead of national religious holidays. Naturally, price hike is the result of high demand. We must anticipate it by strengthening stocks," Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said.
The coordination meeting discussed ways to identify problems related to the stocks and prices of basic commodities at national and regional levels and the regional governments preparedness to deal with a shortage of supplies, disruption to the distribution of basic commodities, and speculators.
He made it clear that based on the result of monitoring in the past month, the prices of basic commodities remained stable and declined, with the price of red chilies declining 13.88 percent.
"We will always try to ensure that the prices of basic commodities will remain stable and supplies can be maintained," he said. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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