Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Government has worked comprehensively to control domestic inflation, while generally, other countries merely raised their central banks' rates to address the problem, according to Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).
"We (the Indonesian government) do not only think about raising the interest rates, which is the authority of Bank Indonesia, but we also directly resolve the initial cause (of the inflation), which is the increase in (the price of) goods and services," Jokowi remarked at the 2022 Investor Daily Summit here on Tuesday.
The president gathered all regional heads twice to give them directives on handling the inflation, and the gathering would continue to be conducted periodically. In addition, a routine evaluation on inflation control is conducted in each region every two weeks.
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Furthermore, he had given the authority to the regional heads to use the two percent of the general transfer fund (DTU) as well as the unexpected spending budget in their regional budget (APBD) to control inflation.
"For instance, there is an increase in (the price of) shallots in a province, for instance, Lampung Province. Meanwhile, the producer of shallots is Brebes District (in East Java Province), so the Lampung government should buy (the commodity) directly from Brebes or cover the transportation costs using the APBD," the president stated.
After being calculated, the budget spent to cover the transportation costs is relatively cheap, he stated.
"Look for a country that works like us (to control the inflation) in such detail – there is none. They control (the inflation) at the macro level through the central bank," he pointed out.
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Jokowi noted that conducting such detailed works had helped in handling the inflation, as the rate had fallen to 5.9 percent, from the estimated 6.8 percent.
Indonesia is doing relatively well in controlling the inflation as compared to other countries, such as Argentina, whose inflation rate had reached 83.5 percent, Jokowi stated.
The president assessed that this was achievable due to the sound coordination and cooperation between Bank Indonesia and the Finance Ministry.
“Thus, fiscal and monetary (regulations) can run well simultaneously," he stated.
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