Govt prepares mitigation measures to curb volatile food inflation
Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto stated here on Tuesday (July 14) that the government is continuously monitoring several key commodities that hold the potential to trigger inflationary pressures.
“We are looking at several commodities that could influence inflation. In the previous period, we saw gold prices rise, but we see that has since declined. Volatile food is still on the rise,” Minister Airlangga said.
According to the minister, managing the volatile food component is a top priority to prevent it from putting undue pressure on national inflation.
In addition to direct food prices, the government is paying close attention to rising packaging costs, which directly affect the retail price of food products.
“Therefore, volatile foods—including garlic—need to be managed properly. And some of them are affected by rising packaging prices,” he added.
He emphasized that packaging costs have a significant domino effect on inflation because nearly all food products rely on plastic packaging.
To address production and logistics costs, the government has already issued policies targeting key industrial and transport sectors.
They include the rapid issuance of a new Ministry of Finance Regulation (PMK) to address rising petrochemical and plastic costs.
The government has also implemented zero-percent import duties on LPG and crucial aviation spare parts to lower operational costs for air transport, a major driver of regional inflation.
Airlangga expressed optimism that these targeted import duty exemptions and regulatory interventions would successfully flatten future price pressures.
He further explained that the decision to exempt import duties on LPG and machinery spare parts is directly aimed at stabilizing the transportation sector, which heavily influences consumer price indexes.
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Translator: Ahmad Muzdaffar Fauzan, Yashinta Difa