Poverty rate down to 13 percent, BPS says

Thursday, 1 July 2010

The Jakarta Post

The country’s poverty rate has declined to 13.13 percent of the population or 31.02 million people as of March 2010, the Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) says.

However, BPS chairman Rusman Heryawan underlined Thursday a setback in the government’s achievement in alleviating poverty in the past year compared to that in the previous year.

BPS data showed the poverty rate fell by only 0.82 percent between March 2009 and March 2010, against 2.43 percent between March 2008 and March 2009.

“Poverty alleviation slowed in the last 12 months, perhaps due to the absence of a direct cash aid and cheap rice program,” Rusman told a press conference.

The BPS report says poverty eradication slashed the poverty rate by 0.81 percent in urban areas and 0.69 in rural areas. “But I do not dare to conclude the poverty alleviation tends to be pro-urban, but the fact is the urban poor benefited the most from government programs,” he said.