A vendor sells rice at a traditional market in Medan, the capital of Sumatra Utara province. (ANTARA/Michael Siahaan)

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reported that rice experienced deflation in April 2024, namely 2.72 percent month-to-month, after earlier recording inflation for eight consecutive months since August 2023.

“It aligns with the increase in rice production, which caused rice inflation to continue to decline and experienced a deflation of 2.72 percent in April 2024 and gave a 0.12 percent deflation contribution,” Acting BPS Head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti said here on Thursday.

She noted that the deflation occurred in 28 provinces. Meanwhile, rice prices were relatively stable in one province and experienced inflation in nine other provinces.

The nine provinces are East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Riau Islands, North Maluku, Papua, West Papua, Southwest Papua, and Riau.

Widyasanti attributed the differences to the patterns of consumption, planting periods, and harvest periods, which are different from one area to another.

“This is what caused the structure of demand and supply for rice to vary between regions. Even though nationally, there is a big-scale harvest, not all regions experience a decline in rice prices,” she remarked.

She further highlighted that people’s preferences for local rice also influenced prices of the commodity in the market.

For instance, prices of the Solok rice variety, which is the main consumption of the people of Riau, or the Siam rice variety that is consumed by the people of Kalimantan, tend to not vary.

“Rice supply outside the regions during the harvest period like now is not necessarily able to reduce local rice prices if the production of local rice has not increased,” she explained.

The BPS recorded that inflation in April 2024 reached 0.25 percent month-to-month, with yearly inflation of three percent year-on-year and calendar year inflation recorded at 1.19 percent year-to-date.

Published Date: May 2, 2024