REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The government will continue to control food commodity prices ahead of the fasting month in an effort to achieve the inflation target of five percent at the end of the year, a senior minister stated.

"We will keep the prices under control during the fasting month and the post-fasting Lebaran festivities, so that inflation will be curbed. Commodities, which have the potential to increase inflation, should seriously be monitored," Chief Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil noted here on Monday night.

The minister remarked that efforts to control volatility in food prices will be made by maintaining adequate stocks. This will be the focus of attention of the government. After all, the food component was the main contributor to inflation in May 2015.

"Volatile products have created problems. Several products are vulnerable to inflation such as red chili, shallots, and chicken. What is important for us is to control the rice price, which is now still as per our expectations," the chief economic minister affirmed.

Djalil also expressed hope that regional governments would work towards maintaining the purchasing power of the people, so that the national inflation rate would not increase due to the lack of food supplies.

"Yesterday, the president in a meeting urged all district/city governments to take efforts to control inflation, as if left uncontrolled, it would reduce the people's purchasing power," the chief economic minister remarked.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) recorded the May 2015 inflation at 0.5 percent, which means that the January-May calendar inflation was recorded at 0.42 percent and the year-on-year (yoy) inflation rate was at 7.15 percent.

The core component inflation was recorded at 0.23 percent, and the yoy core component inflation was at 5.04 percent.

Commodities, which experienced price hikes and contributed to the inflation, were red chili, race chicken, race chicken eggs, shallots, garlic, fresh fish, electricity tariff, vegetables, tomato, and cayenne pepper, among others. However, the price of rice was relatively stable and even contributed to the deflation rate.

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