"It seems the deflationary trend has remained strong because chili and basic necessary prices situation is at its worst since a long time ago. Prices continue to fall," Rusman Heriawan said here on Thursday.
He said to make things even worse, there was to be another chili harvest season. In several regions, the chili price had dropped to below Rp10,000 per kg while rice prices were still at the same level as in April, namely around Rp8,000 per kg.
However, the BPS chief said, the deflation rate in May was still lower than in April when it stood at 0.31 percent.
Rusman said that if the government did not raise fuel oil prices and the basic power rates in the near future, the target to keep the inflation rate at a maximum of 5.3 percent would be achieved.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
