Unpriming the pump

摘要

Politicians anywhere, but perhaps especially in Indonesia, raise petrol prices at their peril. So it is a measure of the pain fuel subsidies are causing South-East Asia's largest economy that the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and legislators have agreed to stiff price rises less than a year before an election. On June 17th the House of Representatives approved a government budget that assumes the price of a litre of petrol will increase by 44% to 6,500 rupiah (66 cents, or $2.50 a gallon) and of diesel by 22% to 5,500 rupiah. The opposition voted against the budget, as did the Prosperous Justice Party (pks), a member of the governing coalition. Outside parliament police and protesters clashed and more violence is likely. Yet Mr Yudhoyono is expected to implement the price rises this month.