Coordinating Minister For Human Development And Culture Claims The Lowest 2024 Poverty Rate In The Last 10 Years

Coordinating Minister For Human Development And Culture Muhadjir Effendy/ANTARA/HO-Kemenko PMK

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy said the poverty rate in Indonesia as of March 2024 was the lowest in the last 10 years.

"Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) as of March 2024, the poverty rate in Indonesia is 9.03 percent. This figure has decreased by 0.33 percent from the previous March 2023 which was 9.36 percent. This 9.03 percent poverty rate is the lowest figure in the last 10 years," said Muhadjir as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, July 3.

The Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture also said that in line with the poverty rate, the extreme poverty condition in Indonesia also continues to decline. The percentage of Indonesia's extreme poor population in March 2024 was 0.83 percent, down 0.29 percentage points against March 2023 by 1.12 percent.

Meanwhile, based on Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 4 of 2022, President Joko Widodo targets a reduction in the poverty rate of 7.5 percent, and an extreme poverty rate of 0 percent in 2024, so that only five months is needed.

"We will try to optimize all existing interventions in the next five months. The intervention is from three strategies, namely reducing the spending rate of poor families, increasing income through empowerment programs, and we are also optimizing the handling of poverty bags," he explained.

Muhadjir also mentioned the Gini ratio or inequality based on BPS data which experienced a positive decline.

Gini ratio experienced a significant decline in March 2024 which reached 0.379 points. A decrease of 0.009 points from the previous year of 0.388 points in March 2023. We know that the Gini index range is 0-1, getting closer to zero, getting better," he said.

To achieve the target of reducing poverty and extreme poverty, Muhadjir emphasized the importance of multi-party collaboration.

"This certainly involves elements of pentahelix, we continue to implement so that the function of strategic institutions or groups in society can really take part in efforts to accelerate poverty reduction and eliminate extreme poverty," he said.

He also emphasized the importance of the role of local governments that have a real role in efforts to reduce poverty and extreme poverty.

"Everything really depends on the good will and seriousness of the local government, because for this poverty issue, the responsibility and authority share between the center and the regions," he said.