Indonesia’s inflation in 2001 reaches 12.55%
JAKARTA, Jan. 2 Kyodo
Indonesia’s inflation in 2001 rose to 12.55% from 9.35% in the previous year, the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.
Bureau chief Soedarti Surbakti told a press conference the inflation rate in December was 1.62%, down from 1.94% on the year.
”The inflation was caused by an increase in the consumer price index of several goods and services,” she said.
Soedarti attributed the price increases to special occasions such as the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Christmas and the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr in December.
She said the largest contributors to December’s inflation were food commodities, followed by processed food, housing, clothing, health care, education, recreation and sports, transportation and telecommunications.
The bureau also said Indonesia’s exports between January and November 2001 decreased by 8.63% compared with the same period in the previous year from $56.90 billion to $51.99 billion.
Total exports in November dropped to $3.83 billion compared with $5.07 billion a year earlier.
Exports of non-oil and gas products declined to $3.02 billion from $3.79 billion, she said.
The Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States and economic recessions in Japan and the U.S. are believed to be the reasons behind the export decrease.
Oil and gas exports also fell to $813.5 million from $1.3 billion in November 2000, the bureau said.
The fluctuating export value of oil and gas is affected largely by the price of Indonesian oil in international markets, which in November dropped to $18.15 per barrel from $31.14 per barrel in November 2000, it said.
Imports in November totaled $2.03 billion from $3.55 billion in November 2000, the bureau said. For the period between January and November 2000, imports decreased by 4.87% to $28.71 billion from $30.12 billion in the same period in 2000.
Tourist arrivals through the 13 main points of entry fell to 304,000 in November compared with 358,616 a year earlier.
But Soedarti said that from January to November, the number of tourists reached 3.88 million, or 1.85% higher than the number visiting the country during the same period in 2000.
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