Jakarta signals fuel price rise

JAKARTA: Indonesia may still need to raise fuel prices to reduce the government’s energy budget, supplementing plans to restrict the use of subsidised oil as early as June, according to the country’s fiscal chief.

“The optimal policy is a combination between price increase and tight restriction on subsidised fuel,” Bambang Brodjonegoro, head of fiscal policy at Indonesia’s Finance Ministry, said in an interview in Brunei. “It has to be combined so you don’t have to increase prices that much.”

The earliest possible time for an increase would be April because inflation was usually low during the harvest season, Brodjonegoro said.