TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has expected that trading activities will increase significantly after the government terminated the implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM).

Jokowi made the statement while reviewing commerce activities and commodity prices at the Sentul Market of Yogyakarta on Sunday.

"We hope so (the trade activities will increase significantly). It (the revocation of the PPKM policy) has just been carried out. It has only been a week or two, thus, I think its impact (on the economy sector) will be experienced later in February," he said, according to a press statement.

He talked to several traders in the market regarding the prices of basic necessities.

One of the sellers, Oka, told the president that the price of rice was rising.

Jokowi then answered Oka by saying that the price would hopefully decrease soon since the harvest season would start in February.

With the exception to rice, President Jokowi found that the prices of most basic commodities at the Sentul Market were quite stable.

The president expected that stable basic necessity prices could also be found in other markets throughout Indonesia.

"We hope that such stability will not only occur in Yogyakarta, but also at the markets in other provinces," he added.

Jokowi had earlier instructed the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), Trade Ministry, and Agriculture Ministry to use up the available rice stock to conduct market operation to reduce the rising price of rice.

However, Bulog said that they only had 500,000 tons of rice remaining in stock, while the ideal reserve should be 1.2 million tons.

Thus, the government decided to import 200,000 tons of rice in December 2022 and 300,000 tons of rice in January 2023.

Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan has assured that the government will not import the commodity anymore starting February 2023, as the harvest season will be around the corner then.

ANTARA

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