TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Chairman of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Bambang PS Brodjonegoro is optimistic that Indonesia’s poverty rate and Gini coefficient will continue to see improvements in the future.

This is why the government, he said, is eyeing to reach 8.5 – 90 poverty rate and Gini coefficient of 0.375-0.380 in 2020.

“The poverty rate has dropped to 9.82 percent in March of 2018 and the latest saw it score 9.66 percent in September of 2018. The dropping trend is expected to continue in 2019 and reach 8.5 percent,” said Bambang last week.

The data shown by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) saw the poverty rate in 2016 reach 10/70 percent and dropped to 10.12 percent the following year in 2017. Meanwhile, the Gini coefficient from 2016 to 2017 had slightly been reduced from 0.394 to 0.391.

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The Gini coefficient or wealth disparity is expected to be in the level of 0.380 by the end of this year. The 0.384 recorded for the past four years, said Bambang, is attributed to the inequality fix in urban areas.

Bambang said that his agency will focus on improving urban society’s incomes to further push for improvements and hopefully boost a significant Gini coefficient.

Meanwhile, the amount of unemployment rate as per August 2018 reached 5.34 percent will be suppressed by the growth of job opportunities in 2019 that is predicted to grow 2.6 – 2.9 percent.

BISNIS