President Jokowi Criticizes Local Governments with High Inflation

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) criticized Regional Governments (Pemda) for high inflation. The president firmly stated he would immediately intervene on the ground.

Jokowi urged Pemda to utilize their regional revenue and expenditure budgets (APBD) to address issues arising from the fuel price adjustment. The central government has issued legal frameworks for using budgets for this purpose.

Below is a list of the 10 regencies/cities with the highest inflation based on August 2022 data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) compared to August 2021:

1. Luwuk: 7.78% (yoy)
2. Jambi City: 7.77% (yoy)
3. Kota Baru: 7.53% (yoy)
4. Sampit: 7.50% (yoy)
5. Tanjung Selor: 7.44% (yoy)
6. Jayapura City: 7.40% (yoy)
7. Sintang: 7.39% (yoy)
8. Bungo: 7.20% (yoy)
9. Padang City: 7.14% (yoy)
10. Sibolga City: 6.91% (yoy)

"These are the regencies and cities with the highest inflation. Please take note and immediately intervene on the ground," Jokowi said while giving a presentation at the inflation control meeting with regional heads at the State Palace, as reported by *Kompas.com* on Monday (12/9/2022).

Furthermore, Jokowi stated that if inflation in these areas is not immediately addressed, poverty rates will rise.

Jokowi also stated that the current APBD realization is around 47%, while its contribution to regional economic growth is significant. Therefore, the central government encourages Pemda to utilize 2% of general transfer funds, namely the General Allocation Fund (DAU) and revenue sharing funds, for subsidies to address price increases due to fuel price adjustments.

This 2% allocation from the DAU amounts to approximately Rp2.17 trillion. In addition, there is an allocation of unforeseen expenditure of Rp16.4 trillion, of which Rp6.5 trillion has been used.

"This means there is still significant room to utilize general allocations and unforeseen expenditures by provinces, regencies, and cities," Jokowi said in a release from *Setkab.go.id*.