President Jokowi Praises Regional Leaders, Inflation Team for Controlling Inflation

President Jokowi opens the 2018 National Coordination Meeting of Inflation at Grand Sahid Jaya Hotel, Jakarta, Thursday (26/7). (Photo by: Public Relations Division /Jay).

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressed his appreciation to all regional leaders and members of the inflation control team – both at the central government level and at regional governments level – for their roles in controlling inflation under 4 percent.

“In 2015, inflation was at 3.35 percent, in 2016 it was at 3.0 percent, and in 2017 it was at 3.1 percent. We have to continue the progress because I notice that coordination between the central government and regional governments is now getting better. Now we also have task force (to monitor) food prices at the central government level and at regional government level. The task force has also performed well,” the President said in his remarks at the 2018 National Coordination Meeting of Inflation Control at Grand Sahid Jaya, Jakarta, Thursday (26/7).

With good coordination, according to the President, stable inflation can be maintained and from year to year, inflation is expected to be lower. The President also hopes that Indonesia’s inflation can be between 1 and 2 percent just like the ones in developed countries and price stability can always remain in check.

Nevertheless, the problem now, the President said, is the uncertainty of global economy that is hard to predict and calculate because policies are in the transition to new norms. Therefore, anticipatory preparations, he added, must continue to be made to respond to changes.

“There are two major problems that I will always reiterate, – which become our joint task to solve and which we still have to find out the way outs – current account deficit and balance of trade deficit,” he said, adding that if these fundamentals can be improved, Indonesia will become a country that will not be affected by turbulences of global economy.

Regarding balance of trade, President Jokowi said that it has something to do with exports and imports and Indonesia’s trade of balance is still experiencing deficit because import is bigger than export.

“The problem is investment, in business expansion. Therefore, I remind governors, regents, and mayors that investment must be export oriented and substitute import commodities,” the President said.

President Jokowi also reminded governors, regents, and mayors not to complicate permit process to prevent investors from cancel their investment at their provinces, regencies or municipalities.

The President further said that the central government has also launched the online single submission (OSS), which can also later on be implemented in provinces, regencies and municipalities. The progress of obtaining permits can always be traced through the system, he said.

The President further said that once Indonesia has surplus balance of trade, any turbulence would not be a problem.

“So once again, investment must be export oriented and investment must also be directed to substituting import goods,” he added.

Also attending the meeting were Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution, Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo, Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya, Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Archandra Tahar, and Governor of central bank Bank Indonesia (BI) Perry Warjiyo. (DID/EN) (/EP/Naster)