With global rice prices at an all-time high, Indonesia has increased by 60 per cent the price of subsidised rice sold to the poor but expanded eligibility and allocations in the wake of soaring inflation, officials said on Wednesday.

Mohammad Ismet, the planning and business development director at the state logistics agency, said the 2008 subsidised price has been set at Rp1,600 (17 US cents) per kilogramme, up from Rp1,000 last year. Some 19.1m families are now eligible to buy 15kg of subsidised rice a month, up from 15.8m families allowed to buy 10kg a month last year.