The city’s trade activities slumped during this year’s first quarter due to the global economic crisis, but rising wages and direct aid mechanisms helped reduce poverty, an official said Wednesday.
“The value of exporting activities in Jakarta added up to US$2.62 million in May, increasing by 3.83 percent in April. However, it decreased significantly from the same month of last year,” head of Jakarta’s Central Bureau of Statistics Agus Suherman said.
The value reduced by 16.93 percent from the same period last year.
Inflation rates, however, showed a slightly more stable condition. June statistics showed Jakarta’s prices inflated by 0.13 percent.
“Jakarta’s inflation rate is 0.02 percent, still lower than that of the country’s, 0.21 percent,” Agus said.
He said the commodities contributing most to inflation were transportation, communication and financial services.
June’s rising inflation was due to the price hike of consumer goods, housing needs, clothing and health care.
The Bureau’s statistics showed improvements in welfare, with the number of those below the poverty line declining from around 380,000 in March last year, or around 4.3 percent of the city’s population, to around 323,000, which is around 3.6 percent, last March.
“This improvement was brought about by several factors, i.e. a deflation between January and March this year, increased minimum wages, and increased accuracy in giving direct aid for the poor,” Agus said.
The city’s minimum wage rose from Rp 972,645 last year to Rp 1,069 million.
Direct aid was a move made by the central government and carried out by regional administrations to help moderate the effects of poverty.
“Our data shows the disparity among the poverty-stricken has reduced compared to last year,” said Sri Santo Budi Muliatinah, the Bureau’s head of the Social Statistic
division. (JP/dis)
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|