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Minister calls half-million decline in RI poor 'remarkable'
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Close talk -- Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa (center) discusses with Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman (left) and State Logistics Agency (Bulog) chairman Djarot Kusumayakti prior to a limited Cabinet meeting in Jakarta recently. (Antara Foto/Yudhi Mahatma)
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ocial Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa has said a decline in Indonesia’s poverty rate from 11.13 percent in September 2015 to 10.86 percent in March, a reduction of around 500,000 people, is a remarkable achievement.
“I think it’s remarkable because it happened at the same time as we suffered from the environmental impacts of La Niña and the haze from land and forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, as a result of which we were worried that we would suffer from food shortages,” the minister said as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Monday.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded that the number of poor people in Indonesia amounted to 28.01 million, 10.86 percent of the population, in March 2016, down from 28.51 million, 11.13 percent, in September 2015.
“We were worried before that increased food prices might have a significant impact on poor people’s spending because 75 percent of their expenses are for food,” said Khofifah.
However, food price rises could be contained and people still could afford to buy their basic commodities, thanks to the government’s efforts to monitor the availability of food supplies and to stabilize food prices through market operations, the minister said.
The efforts, she added, reduced inflationary pressures on basic commodities, especially on the price of rice, which had a significant part in the reduction of Indonesia’s poverty rate. (ebf)
