President Jokowi Tells Regional Leaders to Control Inflation
President Jokowi speaking to participants of APPSI National at Clarion Hotel, Makassar, South Sulawesi, Wednesday (25/11)
President Joko Jokowi Widodo said that there are five important aspects that the government, be it the central government, provincial governments, regency governments and city governments, have to pay attention to namely economic growth; unemployment rate, poverty level, inflation and Gini coefficient ratio.
According to the President, hard work and efforts made by the government would be to no avail if those five aspects were not paid attention to.
The statement came when the President opened the 5th National Assembly of the Association of Indonesian Provincial Administrations (APPSI) at Grand Clarion Hotel in Makassar, South Sulawesi on Wednesday (25/11).
According to President Jokowi, Indonesias economic growth at Quarter III of this year is at 4.73%, unemployment level is at 6 percent, poverty level at 11 percent, inflation until October is at 2.16 percent while Gini coefficient ratio is at 0.41.
The President also estimated that economic growth in 2015 would be at around 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9, while inflation this year is expected to be below 4. He also said that economic growth would be without controlled inflation; thus the President called on governors to be careful with the inflation rate.
President Jokowi went on to say that economic growth in the regions give a big contribution to the national economic growth.
According to the President, if economic growth in the regions are healthy, economic growth at the national level will also be healthy and if regions can control inflation, national inflation will also be under control because there are regional inflation control teams in the regions.
The President said that he was surprised with the economic growth in South Sulawesi thatis very high, 7 percent. Meanwhile, economic growth in provinces in Kalimantan was not as high as that in the previous periods due to the drop in the prices of several commodities such as rubber, coal, palm oil, crude palm oil, and many others. So the figures, according to the President, are not surprising. Economic growth in South Sulawesi is at 7 while the national level is at 4.7.
But please also pay attention to the inflation. Please control it, especially matters related with the prices of basic commodities. Stability can be seen from inflation, the President said.
He also said that some people told him about the rising prices, about the prices of goods that are now expensive or about inflation rate that is half of that of last year.
However, the President believes that inflation would be at around 3.6% 3.8%. But it could be higher because it is still in December, the inflation will usually be a bit higher, but Insha Allah it will be below four.
What does it mean? It means prices at the regency/city/provincial/national levels are under good control, the President added.
Therefore, the President hopes that next year all governors, regents, mayors could continue to reduce inflation rate to be under 3 and the following year could be under 2.
Were going to continue to make the efforts because in European countries on average or in developed countries, inflation is usually below 2, he added.
Also attending the event were Deputy Speaker of the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) Osman Sapta, Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo, and Minister of State Secretary Praktikno.(UN/OJI/ES) (EP/YM/Naster)
