Starfruit (malangkota.go.id) – In order to maintain price stability and availability of basic necessities, especially ahead of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections (Pilkada), the Malang City Regional Inflation Control Team (TPID) held a High Level Meeting (HLM) at the Ballroom of the Grand Mercure Malang Mirama Hotel, Wednesday (18/9/2024).
Acting Mayor of Malang, Iwan Kurniawan, STMM, said that this HLM needs to be carried out considering that during the previous presidential election (Pilpres) there was a risk of price increases in a number of goods and services that affected the rate of inflation. "Today's meeting is in the context of controlling inflation ahead of the 2024 simultaneous Pilkada. We are holding this forum at a high level, meaning that leaders who will later have a commitment to controlling inflation," he said.
In this HLM, Iwan hopes that the Malang City TPID can formulate concrete steps to anticipate fluctuations in the availability and prices of basic necessities during the implementation of the 2024 simultaneous regional elections.
"Because of our experience in the legislative and presidential elections, there will be quite high purchasing power for basic necessities in the field so that stocks run low because they are bought up by political actors for the sake of political contestation, so it is necessary to formulate concrete steps to overcome this," he explained.
Iwan said that inflation control in Malang City is good, where the inflation rate is at 1,88. "I hope it remains stable, but there is an ideal number, which is at 2,00 to 2,5 plus minus one percent," he added.
In the forum attended by the Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda), regional apparatuses and related agencies, several commodities were mentioned that were prone to price increases. Several commodities such as chili, cooking oil, sugar, and especially rice generally experience price increases towards the end of the year, especially this year coinciding with the Pilkada. So the Malang City TPID will focus on maintaining inflation and the stability of staple commodity prices. (wir/yul)