Dec 2 Reuters Indonesia39;s central bank governor Perry Warjiyo said on Friday inflation expectations were coming down rapidly after Bank Indonesia BI started hiking interest rates aggressively four months ago.

He told a central banking forum in Bangkok that the consensus forecast for Indonesia39;s inflation was at 6.9 four months ago, but now is approaching 5.5, BI39;s own forecast.

After we aggressively responded through interest rates, the gap between consensus forecast and our forecast is narrowing, he said, reiterating the need for frontloaded, preemptive and forwardlooking interest rate policy.

BI has hiked the benchmark interest rate by 175 basis points in the past four months.

Warjiyo reiterated BI39;s goal to lower core inflation back to its target range of 24 in the first half of 2023 and lower the headline inflation to within target by the second half next year.

Indonesia39;s annual headline inflation in November eased to 5.42 from 5.71 in October.

Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy, Stefanno Sulaiman Editing by Ed Davies, Kanupriya Kapoor

Source Reuters