Finance Ministry Claims Poverty Rate Maintained in 2022

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia’s poverty rate as of September 2022 was recorded at 9.57 percent or equivalent to 26.36 million people who are below the poverty line. During the same year, this number is a slight increase compared to March which logged 9.54 percent but is lower than September 2021 with 9.71 percent. 

The poverty line threshold also increased by 5.95 percent from Rp505,468 in March 2022 to Rp 535,547 in September 2022. 

The Finance Ministry’s head of fiscal policy agency Febrio Kacaribu in a written statement on Tuesday elaborates that the poverty rate of September 2022 spatially increased slightly in both urban and rural areas. 

Urban poverty in September 2022 grew to 7.53 percent (compared to the previous month’s 7.5 percent) while the percentage of poverty in rural areas grew to 12.36 percent (March 2022 logged 12.29 percent). 

"The minor increase in the poverty rate in September 2022 is closely related to the food inflation, in the periods of June, July, August, and September, which had reached a peak of 11.5 percent in July 2022,” Febrio elaborated in a statement on January 17. “The Government's decision to increase energy subsidies to Rp551 trillion became the main factor in maintaining the poverty rate. In addition to moving quickly to reduce food inflation." 

In 2022, he added, the Indonesian economy faced inflationary pressures coming from rising global commodity prices, especially energy and food, due to the war in Ukraine. However, compared to the United States and European countries, Indonesia’s inflation was considered far more moderate.

MOH KHORY ALFARIZI

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