Rice Prices Skyrocket by 18.41% in February 2024, BPS Reports

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Statistics Indonesia or BPS mentioned that the rice price in February 2024 skyrocketed by 18.41 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) at the milling, wholesale, and retail levels.

However, BPS also mentioned the current inflation rate was not at a record-high level, as November 2023 was higher at a 19.2 percent rate.

"At the retail level, the rice price increased by 5.28 percent month-to-month (m-t-m) and rose 18.41 percent y-o-y," said BPS Deputy for Production Statistics M. Habibullah at a press conference in Jakarta on Friday, March 1, 2024.

Habibullah explained that at the milling level, rice prices had jumped by 24.65 percent y-o-y and 6.76 percent m-t-m. Furthermore, rice prices at the wholesale level hiked up by 20.08 percent y-o-y and 5.96 percent m-t-m.

The harvested dried grain (HDG) price rose by 27.14 percent y-o-y and  4.86 percent m-t-m in February 2024. Meanwhile, the price of milled dried grain (MDG) has reached 33.48 percent y-o-y and 6.13 percent m-t-m.

Additionally, BPS announced that the February inflation rate surpassed 0.37 percent compared to previous month's Consumer Price Index (CPI). "(The CPI) increased from 105.19 in January 2024 to 105.58 in February 2024," said Habibullah.

Furthermore, Habibullah revealed that the y-o-y inflation rate reached 2.75 percent, while the year-on-date (y-o-d) inflation reached 0.41 percent.

Based on the food price panel of the National Food Agency or Bapanas, the average price of premium rice increased by 0.55 percent to  Rp16,520 per kilogram as of today, Friday. Meanwhile, the price of medium rice was observed to be stable at Rp14,330 per kilogram.

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