IPad Prices Jumping 12% on Rupiah Show Inflation Pressure

The rupiah’s slump is fueling a surge in Indonesia’s costs of imported goods from iPads to soybeans, spurring Southeast Asia’s fastest inflation and increasing growth risks ahead of elections next year.

The cost of iPads jumped 12 percent last month, according to a price list at Indonesia’s leading Apple Inc. retailer iBox. Tofu makers in the world’s fourth-most populous nation went on strike in September as imported soybeans climbed 12 percent this year, according to data from the trade ministry.