The poorest and second poorest provinces are Papua and West Papua, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS).Kupang, E Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) is the third poorest among the countrys 34 provinces with 22.61 percent or 1,159,840 of its population living below the poverty line by March 2015.
The poorest and second poorest provinces are Papua and West Papua, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS).
NTT, which had a population of 5.3 million and Papua and Papua Barat were among the largest contributors to the increase in the countrys poor this year, head of the NTT office of BPS Anggoro Dwitjahyono said.
The number of poor people in NTT rose 168,000 in March this year from 991,880 in September last year, Anggoro said here on Thursday.
Meanwhile, BPS head Suryamin in Jakarta said in March, the number of Indonesians living below the poverty line totaled 28.59 million or 11.22 percent of its population, head of BPS Suryamin said here on Thursday.
The number rose around 860,000 from 27.73 million or 10.96 percent of the countrys population in September, 2014, Suryamin said.
He said poor people in urban areas rose to 10.65 million from 10.36 million in the same period.
Anggoro Dwitjahyono said Java is house for the largest number of people living below the poverty line reaching 15.1 million in January, 2015 , with the Sumatra having the second largest number of 6.07 million and Sulawesi 2.05 million.
Anggoro said the increase in poverty in 2015 was attributable to economic slowdown and falling purchasing power of the people.
The countrys economy grew only 4.7 percent in the first and second quarter of 2015 down from more than 5 percent in the same period last year.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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