Indonesia aims to reduce prices of bulk cooking oil to 14,000 rupiah ($0.97) per litre, a senior economic ministry official said on Tuesday, ahead of a planned halt later this week on exports of some palm oil products.

The target price for the bulk cooking oil is one parameter for the government to gauge the effectiveness of the export ban, said Musdhalifah Machmud, deputy coordinating minister of economic affairs. She did not respond when asked whether the ban would be lifted if prices reached that level.

(Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Martin Petty)