Over 26 million Indonesian people live in poverty

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) has announced that as of September 2022, the number of poor people in the country had increased to 26.36 million people, making up 9.57% of the total population and up 0.03% compared to March 2022.

Head of BPS Margo Yuwono said the poverty rate in September 2022 was affected by several factors such as hikes in material prices and mass layoffs.

The number of poor people in urban areas increased by 160,000 people, from 11.82 million in March 2022 to 11.98 million in September 2022. Meanwhile, the number of down-and-out people in rural areas rose by 40,000 people, from 14.34 million people in March 2022 to 14.38 million in September 2022.

Margo said the majority of the poor is concentrated on Java and Sumatra. In Java, the figure had reached 13.94 million people as of September 2022, mostly in East (4.24 million) and West (4.05 million) Java.

According to Febrio Kacaribu, head of the fiscal policy agency under the Finance Ministry, the minor increase in the poverty rate in September 2022 was closely related to the food inflation, in June, July, August, and September, which reached a peak of 11.5% in July 2022.

He added the Government's decision to increase energy subsidies to 551 trillion RP (36.3 billion USD) became the main factor in maintaining the poverty rate while quickly carrying out measures to reduce food inflation./.

VNA