Capacity Building Inflation Literacy and Price Development Index (IPH)

Medan, 9 February 2023. Inflation is a global problem that is of concern to the whole world, including the Indonesian government. As one of the measures to control inflation, since October 2022 the Ministry of Home Affairs has held coordination meetings every week involving Forkopimda at both the provincial and district levels throughout Indonesia. The demand for inflation data is very high, so data quality needs to be monitored by conducting Capacity Building to increase understanding and competence at Regency/Municipal BPS-Statistics. Especially the role of BPS-Statistics as a supervisor of sectoral data, so that Regency/Municipal BPS-Statistics are expected to be able to guide related OPDs in the regions regarding the Price Development Index (IPH).

In the context of fostering sectoral statistics, the BPS-Statistics of Sumatera Utara Province held a Capacity Building for Inflation Literacy and Price Development Index (IPH). This event was held at 08.00-11.30 WIB online through the zoom meeting application which was opened by Mr. Nurul Hasanudin as Head of BPS-Statistics of Sumatera Utara Province with Resource Person Ms. Dinar Butar-butar as Head of the Economic Statistics Distribution Team for BPS-Statistics of Sumatera Utara Province. In this series of Capacity Building events there are 2 main topics, the first is the Deepening of Development and Inflation Calculation Methodology and Sharing and the second is the sharing of knowledge of IPH proxy indicators. This Capacity Building was attended by 85 participants who joined online.

In the discussion of the first topic, namely the in-depth development and methodology for calculating inflation, it was explained that Inflation was 1.50% in December 2022, meaning that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) had increased 1.50% compared to the CPI in November 2022. Here also explained in detail by the resource person related to cities selected to be cities of inflation based on standard criteria and methods of calculating inflation, so that it is hoped that a common perception can be formed in the methods and steps for calculating inflation.

The second topic in the discussion of capacity building is knowledge sharing of IPH proxy indicators. The price development index (IPH) is presented with 3 indicators that reflect changes in the relative prices of 20 selected food commodities in all districts/cities in Indonesia. IPH 20 commodities use the Laspeyres index method which uses standardized NK SBH weights. The Interregional Disparity Index is used to see the relative comparison of the prices of the same commodities and is composited with the NK weights to assess the comparison of aggregate prices between regions and the national average.

The price variation coefficient is used to see price fluctuations in a week for one commodity. To then assess which one fluctuates the most. In this case the Provincial and District/City BPS should help explain the definition of IPH to their respective Regional Governments. Regency BPS can conduct "guidance" for the Department of Trade or OPD which handles price data at the Regional Government so that the quality of the price data input can be guaranteed. If sectoral data is better, more complete and of better quality, then BPS will also benefit from it.

Simultaneously, capacity building is also complemented by a question and answer session and closed by emphasizing concepts and definitions so that messages are conveyed to all participants.