JAKARTA, Jan 2 (Reuters): Foreign visitors to Indonesia in November fell slightly from the previous month to about 657,300 but more than quadrupled from a year earlier, when pandemic restrictions slowed global travel demand, data from the statistics bureau showed on Monday.
The November figure tracked a similar pattern in previous months with a sharp rise from about 150,600 visitors in the same month in 2021. In October Indonesia recorded about 678,900 foreign arrivals.
Indonesia started to ease its Covid-19 travel curbs early last year.
In January-November, Indonesia recorded 4.58 million foreign visitors, more than triple the 1.39 million in the same period in 2021. That compares to about 16.1 million recorded for the full year in pre-pandemic 2019.
However, Indonesia's inflation increased unexpectedly in December and remained above Bank Indonesia's target as food prices continued to rise at stronger rates, data from the statistics bureau showed on Monday.
The consumer price index rose 5.51% year-on-year in December, following a 5.42% increase in November. Economists had expected the annual inflation rate to rise to 5.39%.
Headline inflation stayed above the Bank Indonesia's of 3 plus or minus one% for the seventh month in a row.
Core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices, rose to 3.36% in December from November's 3.30%. Economists had forecast 3.39%.
Prices for food, beverages and tobacco grew 5.83% annually in December and those of housing, water, electricity and household fuels gained 3.78%.
Prices for furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance surged by 4.86%. Prices for health, and clothing and footwear advanced by 2.87% and 1.40%, respectively.
Transportation costs rose by 15.26% and education costs increased by 2.77%. Prices for recreation, Sport, and Culture climbed 3.04%.
On a month-on-month basis, consumer prices increased by 0.66% in December. Economists had expected a growth of 0.52%.
Compared to the previous month, the core CPI rose 0.22% in December.
