Jakarta – Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati revealed that global commodity prices have fallen on average. The decline occurred in gas and coal prices, while the prices of crude palm oil (CPO), wheat, soybeans and corn continued to soar.
“We see a downward trend in commodity prices. Because the war has been going on for one year, this has elicited a response regarding the mitigation of commodity prices, but uncertainty is high,” said Sri Mulyani in a press conference on the KiTa State Budget in February 2023, Wednesday (22/3/2023) .
Gas prices fell sharply, once reaching a peak of US$ 7.53 per MMBtu, now it is only US$ 2.43/MMBtu, coal has once reached US$ 438/metric ton (MT), now it has halved from the previous price to US$ 217.7 /MT.
“For the price of oil, in this case Brent, at US$ 84/barrel, it continues to experience quite dynamic movements due to the war and climate change factors,” he continued.
Then, there are commodities that are still experiencing increases or are still at high price positions. Those commodities that experienced an increase included CPO, soybeans, wheat, and also corn.
“Our CPO had dropped to US$ 720/ton, experienced improvements to US$ 900/ton again. But this figure was much lower during the peak of the majority in mid-2022, US$ 1,779/ton. Wheat prices had jumped up, now decreased to US$ 775/ton bushels. Soybeans are still experiencing an increase and this is of course for Indonesia because we eat tofu, tempeh and soy sauce are still at a high level of US$ 1,525 per bushel, for corn it is still relatively high at US$ 677/bu,” he explained.
Sri Mulyani explained, the rate of rise and fall in the prices of a number of commodities is something important because it will affect the country’s economy and the state budget. The rise and fall of these commodities continues to be watched by the state.
“So if we look at some commodities, we will definitely project the impact on the economy and the state budget which has decreased and is still high,” he said.
