Klojen (malangkota.go.id) – The Malang City Regional Inflation Control Team (TPID) again attended the Regional Inflation Control Coordination Meeting (Rakor) held online by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) from the Sasana Bakti Praja (SBP) Room of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Jakarta, Monday (19/2/2024).
Inspector General (Irjen) of the Ministry of Home Affairs Tomsi Tohir on this occasion invited all meeting participants to focus on handling the increase in inflation rates that occurred. Because according to him, the current problems faced related to the increase in inflation rates are still the same as in previous weeks where there was an increase in the prices of rice, corn, shallots and garlic.
"Friends from ministries or institutions do not need to compete with data, the data is similar now, what is the solution, if we continue to theorize while outside prices continue to rise, every Monday we meet there is no change," he said.
On that occasion, Tomsi also touched on the phenomenon of rising rice prices and restrictions on rice purchases in the community. He asked all related parties to be able to immediately resolve this problem, so as not to cause panic buying among the community, which will also affect the stability of inflation rates both regionally and nationally.
Based on the report submitted by the Deputy for Distribution and Services Statistics of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Pudji Ismartini, a number of commodities, especially food, have indeed experienced a price spike after the Election or ahead of Ramadan 2024. In addition to rice, red chilies, cooking oil, eggs, chicken and granulated sugar are commodities that contributed to the increase in the Price Development Index (IPH) in the third week of February 2024 in a number of regions. "Nationally, the number of districts/cities that experienced an increase in IPH up to M3 February continued to increase compared to M1 and M2 February," he explained.
Specifically for the rice commodity itself, Pudji explained, the national price of rice in the third week of February 2024 continued to increase compared to the average price in January 2024. This price increase also increased from 161 districts/cities to 179 districts/cities. Meanwhile, in the third week of February 2024, the price of rice reached IDR 14.380 per kilogram.
In relation to this, BPS also conveyed to all parties to be aware of the continued increase in rice prices because it is estimated that the rice harvest area throughout January-April this year will be much lower compared to the same period last year. Whereas historically, more than 40% of national rice production in a year is produced during the January-April period (peak season).
"We need to be aware of the potential for rice production in January-April 2024 to be much lower compared to the same period last year. Acceleration of planting and optimization of rice fields must be maximized," he explained again. (iu/yon)
