BPS slams World Bank claiming more valid data on poverty
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 11/13/2010 5:33 PM
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) claims that it has more accurate data on any issues about the Indonesian population than any other non-governmental institutions, including the World Bank, an official says.
“People often criticize that our data are different from that of other institutions, such as World Bank. We can assure you that we have more accurate data compared to the others,” public relations and legal division head with the agency, Sairi Hasbullah, was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.
Sairi cited recent data released by the agency, which shows that 35 million people, or 13.33 percent of the total population, are living under poverty line, much lower to the Bank's report of 100 million poor people.
He accused the Bank of using different yardstick in measuring people's poverty.
He took an instance that his agency calculated the ability of a person to survive with Rp 200,000 (US$22.4) per month, as compared to the Bank's standard of $2 a day for a person.
