Cigarette Price In Bogor Increases By 7 Percent, Bad News: Higher Than Rice, Which Is Only 4 Percent

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted that the expenditure of residents of Bogor Regency, West Java in buying cigarettes has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the purchasing power of the people, in general, has decreased.

"Public cigarette spending increased from 6.19 percent to 7.06 percent based on the percentage of monthly per capita expenditure by commodity group," said the Coordinator of the Social Statistics Function of the Bogor Regency BPS, Ujang Jaelani in Cibinong, Bogor, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, July 14.

According to him, in the 2019 and 2020 comparison data, public cigarette spending was even higher than rice spending which was only 4.89 percent in 2019 and 5.46 percent in 2020.

In fact, he noted that the average value of expenditure per capita in a month for residents in the region decreased in 2020 compared to the previous year.

"In 2019 the average monthly expenditure per capita reached Rp1.2 million, but in 2020 it was only Rp1.1 million per capita according to commodity groups," he said.

Average expenditure per capita is the cost incurred for the consumption of all household members for a month, then divided by the number of household members in the household.

Meanwhile, Bogor Regent Ade Yasin said that the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on increasing the poverty rate in Bogor Regency from 9.06 percent in 2019 to 14.2 percent in 2020.

The pace of economic growth in the region slowed to -1.19 percent in 2020 compared to 2019 which reached 5.85 percent.

"The existence of large-scale social restrictions and restrictions on community activities have an impact on the decline in goods and service production activities, especially those that rely on the secondary and tertiary economic sectors," said the Head of the Bogor Regency COVID-19 Handling Task Force.