Clashes erupt ahead of Indonesian fuel price hike

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Jakarta as the government announced plans to more than double the average cost of fuel, some burning tyres and throwing rocks at riot police who responded by firing tear gas and warning shots into the air.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono defended tomorrow’s price hike as the only way to stave off an economic crisis.

He said the cash-strapped government, which for years has subsidised fuel to help protect Indonesia’s poorest, could not afford to keep doing so amid spiraling global oil prices.

“I realise that this is not a popular policy ... but we have to do it to save the nation’s budget and the future of the country,” Yudhoyono said as 100 youths blocked off streets near their university, vandalised a bus and exchanged a volley of rocks with police, wounding three officers.

Thanks to the subsidies, Indonesia has long enjoyed some of the lowest oil prices in the world.

But the government announced after a three-hour Cabinet meeting that – as of tomorrow – the cost of fuel would go up 87%, the price of diesel fuel would more the double and that of kerosene would nearly triple.

That will push up the price of everything from rice to fish to cigarettes in the sprawling country of 220 million people, half of whom live on less than £1.20 a day.