Indonesia's June Inflation Eases More Than Expected at 2.51% y/y

INFLATION - JAKARTA. Indonesia's annual inflation rate eased to 2.51% in June, lower than expected but still within the central bank's 1.5% to 3.5% target range, data from the statistics bureau showed on Monday.

A Reuters poll had expected June headline inflation of 2.70%, compared with a 2.84% rate in May.

The annual core inflation, which strips out government-controlled prices and volatile food prices, rose 1.90%, compared to 1.93% a month earlier. Analysts had expected it to stand at 1.94%.

Prices of food products such as rice contributed to June's inflation, while financial services prices saw some deflation, Statistics Indonesia official Imam Machdi said.

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Inflation has stayed within Bank Indonesia's (BI) target since the middle of last year, but the central bank is monitoring for any signs of imported inflation given the weakness of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar.

BI kept its policy rate unchanged in June, but said it would fine-tune other tools to defend the rupiah. Governor Perry Warjiyo said last week he saw no need for further rate hikes at the moment.