Minister Suswono Suspects Speculators Behind Price Hikes

Jakarta, July 10 (Antara) - Agriculture Minister Suswono is suspecting speculators` role in the current hike of the prices of a number of basic necessaries. "There have been speculations done through among other things goods purchases at old prices and (hoarded them)," he said before attending a coordination meeting on economy here on Wednesday. He said there were indications they had been carried out by speculators seeking big profits. In view of that the minister called on security agencies to investigate the case and arrest those found hoarding goods. He said an abnormal price hike has occurred among other things on chicken meat. He said that stocks of day old chicken were sufficient reaching around two billions. "Some businessmen have raised their price from around Rp2,000 per head to Rp4,000 citing the loss they suffered before," he said. However he said that his office had already approached several chicken farmers to not raise the price of the commodity upon hearing about the news. He said he had also met with businessmen and associations with regard to finding out the cause of the hike of the prices of other commodities such as shallot and chilli. "The prices of shallot and chilli have indeed increased but they happened because harvests were delayed due to weather problems," he said. The minister assured the price of shallots and chilli would still be within a normal range psychological factors namely panic have triggered a hike. In view of that he appealed to the public not to panic and called on businessmen to put forward business ethics to avoid burdening all parties. Most Indonesian Muslims who are the majority of the country`s population started their first day of the fasting month on Wednesday. Demand for basic necessaries usually soar during the month and post-fasting festivities.