VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Calculation on Standard of Poverty Rate conducted by the Indonesian government through Central Bureau of Statistics is still higher than that of determined by the World Bank. This was stated by Minister of National Development Planning, Bambang Brodjonegoro in the Merdeka Barat 9 Forum themed “Facts of Poverty Reduction”  in Jakarta, on Monday (30/7). Bambang said that calculation of poverty rate which was conducted by Central Bureau of Statistics uses per capita reference unit and different standard for rural and urban areas.

“It has been above the standard which is usually determined by the World Bank, namely 2 US Dollars per day. We have 2.5 US Dollars per day. And we also must view based on rural and urban areas, namely per capita, per month. Most of all the people live in family. A family averagely has 2 to 3 children. So if there are 400 400 thousands, it must be multiplied with 5. It means 2 million rupiahs per month. Even in Jakarta it reaches 3.1 million per month. The point is it has been in accordance with the standard which has been determined internationally,” said bambang Brodjonegoro.

Furthermore Bambang explained the Central Bureau of Satistics has not calculated poverty rate of food and non-food group based on US dollar exchange rate against the rupiah which is now averagely Rp14,400 per 1 US dollar. But it uses US dollar of Purchasing Power Poverty. The conversion rate of  US dollar of Purchasing Power Poverty is the amount of rupiah which is issued to buy a number of commodities which is equal with 1 dollar in the United States. This year, the Central Bureau of Statistics announces that the number of Indonesia’s poverty is 9.82%. the number is the history for Indonesia, because for the first time, the percentage of poor people is in 1 digit. The Central Bureau of Statistics noted that the number of Indonesian poor people per March 2018, is 25.95million people. The number decreases compared to September 2017, namely 26.58 million people or 10.12 percent. (VOI/REZHA/Trans-yati/AHM)