LiputanIslam.com— People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Bambang Soesatyo asked the government to maintain purchasing power that weakens due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on data from Statistics Indonesia, the consumer price index (CPI) experienced 0.05 percent deflation percent in September 2020. This deflation has occurred three times in a row from July to September.
According to Bambang, the decline in CPI for three times in a row shows people’s very weak purchasing power. Therefore, the government must immediately respond with various breakthroughs so that the purchasing power is maintained.
Read: Core: This Year’s Inflation to Hit the Lowest Point in the History of Indonesia
“We ask the government to immediately make new breakthroughs as an anticipatory step to maintain people’s purchasing power, especially for food commodities, availability, and supply in the market while ensuring that commodity prices remain stable considering the recession will affect purchasing power,” he said, Friday (2/10).
In addition, he asked the government to focus on distributing social assistance (Bansos) to the poor and those who are vulnerable to be poor.
“We encourage the current government strategies and programs to focus on maintaining the purchasing power of the poor and vulnerable to poverty,” he said.
He said that the government must also provide support, especially to the most affected groups such as micro, small and medium enterprises (UMKM).
“For example, by accelerating the distribution of various social assistance programs and expanding the target recipients of subsidized assistance, as well as continuing to provide support to maintain the resilience of the most affected groups such as MSME actors,” he said. (sh/tribunnews/kompas/kontan)