| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Soaring food prices lead to increase in poverty
Jakarta Post - January 5, 2016
The number of poverty-stricken people in West Java, the most populated among the country's 34 provinces, increased to 4.48 million people as of September 2015, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), compared to 4.43 million people in March last year, a rise of 9.57 percent of the total population, in a province of 45 million people.
The BPS West Java chapter's statistics affairs head, Dyah Anugrah Kuswardani, said that the increase in the number of underprivileged people, as shown in the agency's September survey, was due to the soaring prices of staple foods.
"The dominant factor affecting the poverty line is food commodity. People in the lower economic class spend more on food than housing, clothes, education and health," Dyah said on Monday.
The survey also recorded a higher number of underprivileged people were found in West Java's urban areas, she added, saying that poverty had affected 2.7 million people in urban areas and 1.77 million in rural areas.
The number of underprivileged people increased by 68,137 people, while in rural areas the figure had decreased by 18,182 people, she added.
Nationally, the number of poverty-stricken people in West Java ranked 19, better than Central Java, which ranked 13, Yogyakarta 14 and East Java 15. "Jakarta is the last, Banten province ranked 30, that's better than West Java," Dyah said.
Meanwhile, in 2014, the number of underprivileged people in North Sumatra stood at around 1,360,000 people, or 9.85 percent of its population. The figure rose further in March 2015 to 1,463,670 people and increased again in September to 1,508,140 people, or 10.79 percent of the total population of the province.
North Sumatra BPS head Wien Kusdiatmono said the increase in the number of underprivileged people in the province had been heavier in urban, rather than rural areas.
In the period between March and September 2015, the number of underprivileged people in urban areas had increased from 699,000 to 727,760 people, a rise of 28,460 percent, Wien added.
In rural areas, according to Wien, the growth in the number of underprivileged people had been lower, from 764,370 people in March 2015, to 780,380 people in September 2015.
He added that in urban areas, an underprivileged person was likely to earn an average monthly income of Rp 369,878 (US$26), compared to Rp 352,637 in rural areas.
He said the rise in the number of underprivileged people in North Sumatra had been caused by various factors, including the 1.43 percent inflation rate rise.
Meanwhile, the BPS office in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) recorded 802,290 underprivileged people as of September 2015, 16.54 percent of NTB's total population of 4.85 million.
"The number of underprivileged people in September 2015 dropped by 21,600 people, 0.56 percent, compared to the March 2015 figure of 823,890 people," said NTB BPS head Wahyudin at his office in Mataram on Monday.
The decrease in poor people in the province had been due to lower inflation caused by a decrease in the price of rice, explained Wahyudin.
According to BPS, the number of poverty-stricken people across the country had reached 28.59 million by March 2015, 11.22 percent of the total population of 255 million, an increase from the previous survey figure of 27.73 million.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/05/soaring-food-prices-lead-increase-poverty.html.
See also:
 |