Indonesia’s Inflation Rate Drops to 45%

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Consumer prices in Indonesia fell 0.2% in March, the second monthly decline in a row, helping to reduce the nation’s annual inflation rate to 45% in March from 53% in February.

David Cohen, an economist at MMS International in Singapore, said he was expecting inflation of 1%.

“The decline in price of a number of important food commodities helped bring down prices overall,” said Sugito Suwito, head of the Indonesian Bureau of Statistics. Food prices fell 2.1%.

Concern that inflation will accelerate could keep the government from pushing interest rates lower, which may delay any rebound from the country’s first recession in 30 years. Consumer prices rocketed 78% in 1998.