For a start, the app will list the prices of groceries and will eventually expand to other categories.

Rafizi said the economy ministry would also work with other e-commerce platforms to develop the potential of price monitoring, so that the people will get used to the process of comparison and will make choices based on comprehensive price data.

Rafizi said the app was developed by KitaJaga, the group behind a pandemic support movement during the White Flag campaign, in collaboration with the economy ministry and the statistics department.

The app, developed at no cost to the government, makes use of data shared by the statistics department at its OpenDOSM site.

“This shows that data shared by the government has an important role, if used to benefit the people,” Rafizi said. He hoped other organisations would follow suit and build on the government’s data.

“This would directly save money for the government, as we would not need to fund the development of these applications,” he added.