Because Of COVID-19, Indonesia's Poor Population Increases

Illustration (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - The number of poor people in Indonesia in March 2020 became 26.42 million people, an increase of 1.63 million people in September 2019, and an increase of 1.28 million people in March 2019. Thus, the national poverty rate is 9.78 percent.

"The percentage of poor people in March 2020 was 9.78 percent, an increase of 0.56 percentage points compared to September 2019 and an increase of 0.37 percentage points compared to March 2019," said Chairman of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Suharyanto, Wednesday, July 15.

According to him, the poverty rate is increasing due to the influence of COVID-19 which has entered Indonesia since March 2020. This is because with this virus people's income has decreased.

"Where 7 out of 10 people with low income below Rp1, 8 million are affected. People with high income above Rp 2.7 million also have a decrease in income," he said.

Then, he said, the percentage of poor people in urban areas in September 2019 was 6.56 percent, increasing to 7.38 percent in March 2020.

Meanwhile, the percentage of poor people in rural areas in September 2019 was 12.60 percent, increasing to 12.82 percent in March 2020.

"Meanwhile, rural areas increased by 333.9 thousand people (from 14.93 million people in September 2019 to 15.26 million people in March 2020)," he said.

He continued, the poverty line in March 2020 was recorded at IDR 454,652 / capita / month with the composition of the Food Poverty Line of IDR 335,793 (73.86 percent) and the Non-Food Poverty Line of IDR 118,859 14 percent).

In March 2020, on average, poor households in Indonesia had 4.66 household members. Thus, the average poverty line per poor household is IDR 2,118,678 / poor household / month.