Three consecutive months of indonesia's deflation still safe: official

Jakarta, Aug 12 (ANTARA) - The deflation that Indonesia experienced in the last three consecutive months is still categorized as safe, and is in accordance with the government's target, according to an official from the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs.

Deputy for Macro Economy and Finance Coordination Ferry Irawan noted here on Sunday that the deflation was mainly caused by volatile food, which experienced a deflation of negative 1.92 percent month-to-month (mtm) in July 2024.

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded that the deflation in July 2024 stood at negative 0.18 percent (mtm). Meanwhile, in May and June, it stood at negative 0.03 percent and negative 0.08 percent (mtm) respectively.

Furthermore, the inflation rate in July 2024 was recorded at 2.13 percent (yoy).

Irawan underlined that until the second quarter of 2024, Indonesia's inflation in general is still within the target, though efforts to control it are still needed.

Inflation control is deemed needed because if it is too high, it will affect consumers while if it is too low, it will affect producers.

For 2024, the government has set a target of maintaining Indonesia's inflation rate at "2.5 percent plus minus 1 percent".

"The inflation is still in accordance with the inflation target, namely 2.5 (percent). However, because of the volatile food component, we tolerate plus minus 1 percent," he remarked.

Earlier, Senior Economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Didik J Rachbini in Jakarta on Friday (August 2) underlined the need to pay attention to the deflation in July 2024.

He assessed that deflation indicated a macroeconomic phenomenon where the people's economy is not powerful to buy their needs.

Rachbini warned that the deflation in July 2024 could negatively affect the economy if there were no adequate policies for macro and real economy as a result of the deflation which reflected a decline in consumer spending.