[Updated at 12:01 p.m. on Friday, May 2, 2014]
Jakarta. Indonesia’s inflation slowed in April, supported by stable food prices that gave room for the central bank to keep borrowing costs steady.
The consumer price index rose 7.25 percent last month from a year earlier, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Friday. That compared with the CPI’s 7.32 percent increase in March.
Core inflation, which does not include food and energy prices because of their volatility, was 4.66 percent in April.
On a monthly basis, the CPI was broadly flat — edging down 0.02 percent in April from March.
The central bank will hold its next monthly monetary policy meeting next week. It has held its key interest rate steady at 7.5 percent since December as inflationary pressures eased. Consumer prices rose sharply in the second half of last year after the government raised prices on subsidized fuel by an average 33 percent in June.
BPS chief Suryamin said in a meeting with reporters in Jakarta on Friday that past trends have shown that slight deflation often occurs in April. He added that in April of last year, month-on-month CPI fell 0.1 percent.
The BPS also reported a second month of trade surplus of $680 million in March, bolstered by a $2.05 billion surplus in the non-oil-and-gas sector. In February the nation had a trade surplus of $785.3 million.
Meanwhile, the oil-and-gas sector reported a trade deficit of $3.17 billion for March. The country exported $15.21 billion and imported $14.54 billion on March, according to BPS.
