Farmers only contributed 5 percent garlic to the market. The remaining need for garlic is still imported, Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said.
Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said it was not reasonable for garlic price hike to boost inflation in Indonesia.

"The contribution of garlic to the February inflation was only 0.12 percent. The February inflation was recorded at 0.75 percent," the coordinating minister for economic affairs said here on Friday.

In the meantime, farmers only contributed 5 percent garlic to the market. The remaining need for garlic is still imported, he said.

"We have to maintain the stability of garlic price. We should continue to generate farmers to produce garlic so that we would not run short of the commodity," the minister said.

For this purpose, the government will restrict the importation of garlic in an effort to help local farmers, the minister said when he was visiting a painting gallery belonging to artist Nasirun.

"We should not flood the domestic market with imported garlic. We will continue to maintain price stability while protecting local farmers so that they would enjoy their garlic production benefit,` the Minister said.

He said that the importation of garlic would only be carried out as an effort to complement stocks when supply ran short. "We will carry out the importation to keep inflation low. If inflation is high we will overcome it because it would affect all," he said.

It was earlier recorded that the price of garlic here had remained at a level between Rp38,000 and Rp42,000 per kg. The price of union is Rp30,000 per kg.

Earlier the government was surprised to see the high inflation in February which reached 0.75 percent.

Hatta Rajasa has said: "I have predicted it would be quite high but it was beyond expectation that it reached 0.75 percent."

He said January to February is a scarcity season that always causes inflation but the inflation in February was not caused by a hike in the price of rice but the price of horticultural products.

"Usually the scarcity is connected with rice but this time the price of rice was stable. The inflation hike was caused more by horticultural products," he said.

He said the government would monitor the products` supply and demand and if the demand rose sharply he would increase supply. "This must be overcome quickly."

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics the February inflation was the highest in the same month in the past ten years.

The rate of inflation in January was recorded at 1.03 percent so to make the inflation in the calendar year at 1.79 percent.

One of the causes of the high inflation in February was the policy to limit imports of horticultural products.

The highest inflation in February was last recorded in 2002 at 1.5 percent.

After that it stood at an average of 0.3 percent. Even in 2012 the inflation was recorded at 0.05 percent.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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