PORTALJABAR, BANDUNG CITY - Acting Mayor of Bandung, A. Koswara was present in person at the 2024 Inflation Control Coordination Meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs Office (7/10/2024).

On that occasion, the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri), Tito Karnavian expressed his appreciation for the performance of regions and institutions in efforts to control inflation.

Indonesia's inflation rate in September 2024 remains low and stable. Indonesia's inflation realization in September 2024 was controlled at 1.84 percent (yoy), or lower than August 2024 at 2.12 percent (yoy), and still within the target range of 2.5% ± 1%.

"I would like to thank my fellow ministerial institutions for always continuing to maintain inflation. The President gave high appreciation. President Joko Widodo and the President-elect also gave appreciation because inflation could be suppressed below 3 percent and even touched 1.84 percent," he said.

"I also thank the regional heads for being able to maintain inflation in their respective regions," he added.

According to him, this inflation rate is the lowest in the last 20 years. He said that month-to-month deflation in September 2024 was mainly caused by a decrease in prices in volatile food (VF) components which experienced deflation of 1.34 percent (mtm) and a decrease in price components regulated by the Government, especially the decrease in fuel prices.

The decline in prices of a number of food commodities, such as red chilies, cayenne peppers, chicken eggs, chicken meat, and tomatoes was driven by the ongoing harvest season in a number of production center areas.

The deflation that occurred in the last 5 months is considered to be the result of declining purchasing power. However, according to the data, this is due to volatile prices influenced by many factors, especially in the food and energy sectors, he said.

"If there is too deep deflation, consumers will be happy, but producers or farmers will suffer losses. Why can it be cheap because there is a lot of supply? Consumers are happy but farmers are screaming. Don't let it drop drastically, it will drop slowly," he added.

Meanwhile, the Bandung City Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released the September 2024 inflation report. As a result, Bandung City recorded deflation of -0.24 percent in September 2024, this figure is better than the deflation in West Java (-0.21 percent) and nationally (-0.12 percent).

In the notes, price decreases occurred in several basic necessities such as broiler chicken, broiler chicken eggs, and red chilies.

On a year-on-year (y-on-y) basis, inflation in Bandung City is still under control at 1.73 percent, lower than West Java which reached 2.09 percent and national inflation of 1.84 percent.

During the period of January to September 2024 (year to date), Bandung City inflation reached 0.97 percent, indicating better price stability compared to the national level of only 0.74 percent. (Bandung City Communication and Information Service/Fauziah)