Angry students increase their protests across Indonesia, showing the risks for the government if it will cut subsidies on fuel amid soaring world oil prices. The protests are small and peaceful, but the government is keeping a close watch. Drastic price hikes in 1998 eventually caused the fall of former president Suharto. There were demonstrations in at least ten cities.

Officials have said gasoline, diesel and kerosene prices will rise by up to 30 percent, likely at the start of the new month. “Reject any fuel rises,” some 50 students in the west Javanese town of Bandung shouted. “They will only add to the people’s suffering.” Fuel subsidies have long kept prices down for the millions of poor people in the country, but due to surging world oil prices, the government can not afford them anymore.

Any rise in fuel costs will lead to knock-on hikes in prices of food, electricity and public transportation. The government has promised to cushion the blow to the poor by giving them cash handouts over the coming months. The government says it has no choice but to cut subsidies and has pointed out that they are disproportionally enjoyed by the rich, who currently spend just 0.32 euro for a liter of gasoline for their cars.

Indonesia’s economy probably grew by more than 6 percent for a sixth quarter as the lowest interest rates in three years spurred spending on homes and cars. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy expanded 6.2 percent in the three months to March 31 from a year earlier, about matching the 6.25 percent expansion in the preceding period, according to the median forecast of 17 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The Central Statistics Bureau will release the data in Jakarta today.

Private consumption, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, is likely to cool amid plans by the government to raise fuel prices by as much as 30 percent to ease a subsidy bill estimated at about 14 percent of total revenue. Spending may also drop after Bank Indonesia raised borrowing costs for the first time in more than two years to tame the fastest inflation in 19 months.