"We need to anticipate price hikes in several food commodities that often cause high inflation on Nyepi Day," Bank Indonesia Bali Representative Office Chief Trisno Nugroho said in Denpasar on Saturday.
Nugroho mentioned the food commodities that often trigger inflation are onions, broiler meat, broiler eggs, and cayenne pepper.
"Another important thing to watch out for is cooking oil commodities that are still sold at prices above the maximum retail price set by the government," he said.
Moreover, the supply of cooking oil is also limited, due to traders maintaining cooking oil stocks they had bought when prices were less expensive.
According to Nugroho, the Regional Inflation Control Team will also conduct market operations for cooking oil commodities and availability through cooperation with the Food Task Force.
Recently, in a high-level meeting of BI and the Bali Regional Inflation Control Team, Bali Governor Wayan Koster called for joint efforts in managing problems in Bali's economy.
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Amonf other suggestions, he stated that Bali needs to build a cooking oil processing industry, as the region has a considerable amount of coconut supplies.
"This measure can be one of the solutions, in the medium to long term, to reduce Bali's dependence on cooking oil supplies from Java Island," Koster said.
In addition, Koster emphasized the need for a policy to optimize the Bali domestic market. To that end, the Bali Provincial Government is preparing a policy of limiting the entry of food commodities that Bali actually has in surplus.
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Translator: Rhismawati, Kenzu T
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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