'Chili Mafia' Being Hunted by Indonesian Police
- Central Bank staff team up with police, anti-trust officials
- Cartels raise food prices, curbing room for interest-rate cut
Chili is seen being sold at a stall inside the Wonosari Market in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Monday, April 10, 2017.
Photographer: Dimas Ardian/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
They’re called the chili mafia -- a shady group of wholesalers who manipulate the price of Indonesia’s favorite spice -- and the nation’s central bankers are out to smash them.
The fact that Bank Indonesia has joined the police on the front line of fighting crime is an indication of how the archipelago nation’s economy functions, and sometimes doesn’t. The bank’s public enemy number one is inflation, which for most Indonesians is chiefly influenced by the price of food.