BPS Claims Inequality is Getting Lower, Poverty in Bali is Decreasing, Agree Semeton?

Head of BPS Bali Agus Gede Hendrayana Hermawan said Bali's poverty rate fell in line with the reduction in inequality, Denpasar, Thursday, February 5, 2026. (ANTARA/Ni Putu Putri Muliantari)

DENPASAR - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Bali said based on the results of the National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas) September 2025, Bali's poverty rate has decreased in line with the reduction in population inequality.

"Usually not all of them are in line, but this is a coincidence that they are all in line, the economy is growing well, inequality is getting lower, followed by poverty reduction," said Head of BPS Bali Agus Gede Hendrayana Hermawan, Thursday, February 5.

He said the results of the September 2025 Susenas recorded Bali's poverty rate dropped by 0.30 percentage points or remained at 3.42 percent from March 2025, which was 3.72 percent.

If calculated based on the number, the number of poor people in Bali now remains 160,09 thousand people from the condition of March 173,24 thousand people or down 13,15 thousand people in 6 months.

This poverty rate of 3.42 percent has brought Bali back to the province with the lowest poverty in Indonesia, the percentage is also much lower than the national poverty average of 8.25 percent.

More deeply, BPS Bali divides the poverty rate based on urban and rural areas, but it turns out that when divided into both areas, poverty also decreased, namely in urban areas by 0.21 percentage points and in rural areas by 0.53 percentage points.

In its observations, BPS Bali uses the poverty line as an indicator to determine whether someone belongs to the poor or not.

Seeing the increase in prices or inflation in September 2025 which tends to rise, the poverty line per capita per capita is found to be Rp642,986.

"That is the per capita figure per month, if the consumption is mostly per household, if multiplied by the average of one poor household in Bali consists of 4.13 members, so the needs per poor household are Rp2,655,532," said Agus Gede.

The commodities that contributed to the largest poverty line in urban areas were the food group, namely rice, followed by filter kretek cigarettes, broiler chicken meat, broiler chicken eggs, and wet cakes.

For non-food groups are housing, gasoline, customary ceremonies, electricity, and education.

In rural areas, the composition is almost the same, in the food group contributed by rice, purebred chicken meat, filter kretek cigarettes, purebred chicken eggs, and mujair and non-food are housing, gasoline, religious ceremonies, electricity, and health.

"This is not what makes Balinese people poor, this is the basic needs of the Balinese people who have a big contribution, besides this there are many more," said Agus Gede.

Although there are still 3.42 percent of the population living in poverty, BPS Bali found that the level of inequality in spending among the population decreased by 0.02 points or became 0.333 points from 0.353.

"Our economy grew 5.82 percent, our poverty fell, it turns out that our inequality in September 2025 experienced a decline, this illustrates that the three of them have improved," said Agus Gede.

This 0.333 point inequality is also recorded as lower than the national gini ratio of 0.362 points.

"So the growing economy turns out to be able to be enjoyed by most people, including the lower group, that's why poverty has decreased and inequality has decreased in the midst of an impressive economic growth rate," he continued.

Head of the Bali Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) I Wayan Wiasthana Ika Putra said this condition illustrates the results of hard work together in building Bali.

However, the results of this macro calculation still need to be deepened at the micro level, namely to find out where the poverty point still occurs.

"Later we will also check the DTSN (National Social and Economic Single Data), where the poverty is, we intervene with the right programs and activities," concluded Ika.