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In Indonesia, the cost of a beef rendang just got a whole lot pricier

Bloomberg Published on Mon, Jun 04, 2018 / 7:55 AM GMT+8

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JAKARTA (June 4): Cooking up Indonesia's national dish is lot more expensive these days.

A sharp rise in the cost of some of the key ingredients that make up a rendang curry - chili peppers, shallots and beef - is putting the popular dish out of reach for many Indonesians. It's also driving up inflation in a country that's struggling to contain a currency rout and a surge in oil prices.

The cost of chili - ubiquitous in Indonesian cooking and an essential ingredient in rendang - peaked at 41,350 rupiah ($4) a kilogramme on May 18. That's up 24% from a year earlier, according to data published on a Bank Indonesia price monitor.