Cigarettes are the second largest contributors to the poverty lineJakarta (ANTARA) - Cigarettes have become one of the commodities that contributed greatly to the poverty line with a figure of 11.17 percent in urban areas and 10.37 percent in rural areas, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted. "Cigarettes are the second largest contributors to the poverty line," BPS Head Suhariyanto said in Jakarta Wednesday.
Based on the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) September 2019, cigarettes entered the ranks for the food component that contributed to the poverty line.
The first food component was rice, which contributed 20.35 percent in urban areas and 25.82 percent in rural areas.
In addition, the third position was 4.44 percent of broiler eggs in urban areas and 3.47 percent in rural areas, and then broiler chicken meat 4.07 in urban areas and 2.48 percent in rural areas.
This was followed by instant noodles at 2.32 percent in urban areas and 2.16 percent in rural areas, sugar 1.99 percent in urban areas and 2.78 percent in rural areas to ground coffee and instant 1.87 percent in urban areas and 1.88 percent in the countryside.
Whereas the non-food component contributing to the poverty line in both urban and rural areas is housing, gasoline, electricity, education and toiletries.
The role of food commodities is still far greater than the role of non-food on the poverty line which reached 73.75 percent, BPS assessed.
The poverty line is a value of the minimum expenditure of food and non-food needs that must be met so as not to be categorized as poor, according to BPS.
In other words, a poor population is one that has an average expenditure per capita per month that is below the poverty line.
The poverty line in September 2019 was Rp440,538 per capita per month, an increase of 7.27 percent compared to the same period in 2018.
Meanwhile, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded that the total number of poor in September 2019 reached 24.79 million people, down 0.44 percent compared to the same period in 2018 which reached 25.67 million people.
"When compared to March 2019, the poor population fell by 358.9 thousand people and compared to September 2019 it fell by 888.7 thousand," BPS Head Suhariyanto said.
With that decrease, the percentage of poor people in September 2019 reached 9.22 percent, down compared to September 2018 when it was 9.66 percent.
BPS records poverty rates twice a year in March and September.
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Translator: Dewa Ketut, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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