Our prices will go up… it’s inevitable.
Fuel prices in Indonesia rose by a whopping amount last month… nearly 30% across the board.
You may have missed the kerfuffle here… my recollection is that oil prices surged around the world but in Indonesia, it was less about the global market and more about cutting back on government subsidies.
If you had been in Bali on May 23rd, you would have noticed that a few Gas Stations were jam-packed with motorists eager to fill their tanks ahead of the midnight price increase (the other Gas Stations were all closed with HABIS [finished/empty] notices scrawled on bits of cardboard at the front).
Here’s how the increases broke down for us:
- Kerosene increased 25%.
- Premium Gasoline / Petrol / Benzene increased 33%.
- Diesel / Solar increased 27.9%
As you’d expect, price increases of this magnitude will affect everyone in Indonesia.
Everyone and everything.
The price of food has gone up.
Transport costs will go up and, for our customers, the price of furniture and handicrafts will go up.
Salaries will have to go up to cover the shortfall.
This has already started.
Based on conversations with our carvers and suppliers over the past week, we’re looking at product cost increases of between 10% and, shockingly, 44% on certain items.
We’ll do our best to soften the impact as much as we can and phase the higher prices in as slowly as possible and we’ll accompany each increase with a note in our news & updates pages under the General News category.
Sean
