JakartaPost-Oct 31, 2022
Former finance minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has praised government and monetary policy authorities for their active stance in supporting the domestic economy at a time of global turmoil, which he noted differed from how developed Western countries were responding to the crisis. Speaking in a panel discussion at The Indonesia Summit 2023 in Jakarta, he elaborated that Indonesia’s central bank was not left to fend for itself, noting, “The government has its own role [to play] when [it finds] that there is potential inflation coming from [commodities with] volatile prices or from administered [prices].” Bambang, who served as finance minister from 2014 to 2016 during the first term of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, commended the government for its use of the state budget as a “shock absorber” to subsidize administered prices. He added the government had instruments to address inflationary pressure from volatile food prices, namely the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) as well as the Trade Ministry’s direct market intervention. A combination of subsidies and direct social assistance was the key for Indonesia to respond to ongoing monetary tightening in the West, said Bambang, who cochairs the Think 20 (T20) initiative in the Group of 20 forum currently led by Indonesia. The other panelists charted a similarly proactive path to recovery for the domestic and regional economies. The government’s war on inflation has gone as far as banning the export of crude palm oil in a move to bring down the price of cooking oil in the domestic market. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2022/10/31/wouldnt-happen-in-us-eu-former-minister-hails-indonesias-answer-to-inflation.html.
