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View all search resultsPoverty at record low as govt seeks to redefine threshold
The poverty rate rests at a historic low of 8.25 percent of the total population, continuing its declining trend from September 2022.
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Streams of reality: Low-income informal housing sits on the banks of the Ciliwung River on Nov. 13, 2025, in Matraman, East Jakarta. The Jakarta provincial administration has identified 445 community units with poor housing and limited sanitation. (The Jakarta Post/Iqro Rinaldi)
I
ndonesia has yet again recorded a historic low poverty rate amid a state agenda of lifting the poverty line that statistically will double the population of poor people and risk bad political optics. This data point is one to which government officials attach great importance as a benchmark for creating better economic policies.
Poverty Alleviation Acceleration Agency (BP Taskin) head Budiman Sudjatmiko told The Jakarta Post on Monday that current poverty line was set “very low” and therefore risked “statistical invisibility” as the population vulnerable to poverty is out of the equation even though they are just “one shock away” from falling into extreme poverty.
“Because the poverty database is artificially shrunk, it could risk structural mistargeting of social aid and subsidy, not just due to a technical error. The working poor, such as informal laborers, small farmers and gig workers, are often ineligible [for social aid],” said Budiman.
He claimed that President Prabowo Subianto has passed on to him the need to revise the poverty line in keeping with the up-to-date method to alleviate prosperity, “not just stopping at survival mode”.
Statistics Indonesia (BPS) head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti revealed in a press conference on Thursday that the population in poverty has decreased by about half a million from 23.85 million in March to 23.36 million people in September of last year.
The poverty rate rested at 8.25 percent of total population, continuing its declining trend from September 2022 and is the lowest ever measured since the statistics bureau began logging the metric in 1960.
BPS defines a poor person as anyone consuming goods and services valued at no more than Rp 641,443 (US$38.14) per month, which was a 5.3 percent increase from the threshold applied at the previous survey in March.
