VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Idul Fitri holiday is only a few days ahead. The government has spent 35.76 trillion rupiah for holiday allowances and 13th salary for state officials, state apparatuses and pensioners. The allocation is up 68.9 percent compared to last year. Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani said that the addition of holiday allowance component and the 13th salary is expected to encourage the growth of public consumption so that it can stimulate the economy.

According to the plan, the central government started disbursing the holiday allowance the end of May 2018. Meanwhile, the 13th salary is expected to be disbursed by the end of June or early July 2018. It seems that the government's efforts to boost the economy are successful. The situation of retail sales in late May and early June was considered quite exciting. Minister of Trade, Enggartiasto Lukita announced the retail report in May 2018 which generally grew 10 to 15 percent. He remarked that the report shows no weakening of purchasing power, even predicted to continue to grow until July 2018.

Association of Indonesian Shopping Center Tenants -Hippindo noted that the average sales of its members in May 2018 grew 15 percent compared with the same month last year. Chairman of Hippindo, Budihardjo Iduansjah mentioned that clothing products contribute the highest in the growth. Sales transactions reached 50 trillion rupiah. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs (Aprindo), Roy Mandey reported that the increase in retail sales reached 4.7 percent. This increase makes the retailers optimistic; sales will continue to rise until Lebaran day. The public optimism of the country's economic growth is also supported by the results of a government survey. Bank Indonesia retail sales survey shows a growth trend with the Real Sales Index in April 2018 of 4.1 percent. The data does not refer to major retailers, but traders in traditional markets throughout Indonesia.

On one hand, high demand of certain products such as chicken and meat ahead of the holiday will certainly lead to price hike. But the phenomenon that occurs each year, do not discourage public spending if viewed from the data mentioned earlier. On the other hand, the government is expected to maintain the price hike under control. As a result, this may create a business climate that encourages the increase of people's income. Thus, people's purchasing power can continue to grow.