Book prices rise by 10 percent

Book prices rise by 10 percent

JAKARTA (JP): The price of books in city bookstores has risen by an average of 10 percent, mainly due to the scarcity of paper stock.

"The 10 percent increase does not only affect new school books and books on general sciences, but also used books," said Ronald Edward, a book trader at Senen market in Central Jakarta, yesterday.

The price increase had caused Ronald's sales to drop 50 percent from about 100 books per day, Antara reported.

Boedi Yogipranata, manager of Gramedia Bookstore in Matraman, East Jakarta, said the price increase was caused mainly by the current monetary crisis.

"Our turnover has also dropped 10 percent to 15 percent because of people's weak purchasing power," he said.

Before the crisis, Boedi said his store managed to sell an average of 3,000 books per day, mainly consisting of comic books and children's books.

He said the crisis had also caused the price of imported books to soar by between 20 percent and 30 percent. (hhr)