Trade Ministry: Shopping festival programmes maintain purchasing power during low season

The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) has said that shopping festival programmes are one of the strategic collaborative efforts to maintain public purchasing power during the low season period.

Franciska Simanjuntak, Director of Trade Business Development at the Directorate General of Domestic Trade of the Ministry of Trade, said the low season trend occurs from March towards the end of the year, before public consumption picks up again during the Christmas and New Year peak season.

“We do see that from month 3 to month 12, every year there is certainly a pattern of declining sales until usually at Christmas and New Year people start spending again,” Franciska said in Jakarta on Thursday.

However, collaboration between the government and business players such as retail associations has also produced mid-year shopping programmes such as back-to-school promotions during the new school year, as well as attractive promotions ahead of the 81st anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia this month.

“Like back to school, of course it is necessary for children going to school, so spending can also be adjusted to the existing shopping programmes,” she said.

According to Franciska, shopping festival programmes like this are expected to support the movement of public consumption and the business world in general amid various economic dynamics, such as the weakening of the rupiah which affects the prices of imported goods sold by retailers in Indonesia.

“So actually it is not only consumers who feel that the prices of goods have risen, but business players themselves also have many sales and many prices that are being suppressed, meaning their profits are being eroded in order to increase sales and of course to keep the wheels of the economy turning,” Franciska said.

Similarly, Ismariny, Assistant Deputy for Domestic Trade, Consumer Protection and Trade Order at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, said promotion and shopping festival programmes are important in maintaining household consumption while sustaining national economic turnover.

“We thank the existing retail associations for holding events that sufficiently encourage the public to shop, thereby maintaining our trade, because from this trade it can also drive our industry, that is what we hope for, so that it keeps turning,” Ismariny said.