BPS Claims Poverty Rate Has Dropped In The Last 10 Years

Illustration (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) claims that domestic poverty levels have dropped to their lowest level in the last 10 years.

Acting President Secretary of BPS Imam Machdi said that in the last 10 years, the number of poor people has decreased by 3.06 million people or decreased by 2.22 percentage points.

With these developments, on average, the number of poor people decreases by 300,000 people every year.

"The average poor population decreases by 300 thousand people per year. The poverty rate of 9.03 percent is the lowest in the last 1 decade," he said at a press conference, Monday, July 1.

Imam said that the poverty rate in March 2024 reached 9.03 percent or around 25.22 million people.

"The March 2024 poverty rate of 9.03 percent is the lowest poverty rate in a decade," he said.

He said, the determination of the status of the poor population is determined by the poverty line.

The poverty line in March 2024 was IDR 582,932, an increase of 5.90 percent compared to March 2023.

Meanwhile, based on components, food spending still dominates the poverty line with a portion of 74.44 percent.

The non-food commodity is 25.56 percent.

In March 2024, the average poor household in Indonesia has 4.78 household members.

Thus, the average poverty line per household is IDR 2.78 million per poor household per month.

If you look at the changes, the increase in urban poverty lines from March 2023 to March 2024 is 5.72 percent or lower than the increase in rural poverty lines which amounted to 6.06 percent.

Imam said that the higher poverty reduction rate occurred in rural areas compared to in urban areas.

In addition, the poverty rate in March 2024 was lower than the conditions before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The poverty rate in rural areas was already lower than before the pandemic.

While urban areas are still higher than before the pandemic.

Furthermore, the poverty reduction rate is greater in rural areas, which is 0.43 percentage points, when compared to urban areas which only decreased 0.20 percentage points.

"Comparedly, there is still a fairly wide disparity between urban and rural areas. In March 2024, the poverty rate in rural areas reached 11.79 percent, while in urban areas 7.09 percent. The reduction in poverty in rural areas is greater than in urban areas," he said.

Furthermore, the rural poverty rate in March 2024 was 0.81 percent lower than in September 2019.

Meanwhile, the urban poverty rate is 0.53 percent higher than in September 2019.