"Based on Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data, as of March 2024, the poverty rate in Indonesia stood at 9.03 percent. This figure showed a decline of 0.33 percentage points from March 2023, namely 9.36 percent," he informed at a press conference here on Wednesday.
He said the extreme poverty rate also showed a continued decline. In March 2024, the extreme poverty rate stood at 0.83 percent, down 0.29 percentage points from 1.12 percent in March 2023.
Based on Presidential Instruction Number 4 of 2022, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is targeting to lower the poverty rate to 7.5 percent and the extreme poverty rate to zero percent this year.
"We will optimize all the interventions for the next five months. The interventions are from three strategies, namely reducing the expenditure of poor families, increasing the income through empowerment programs, and optimizing the handling of pockets of poverty," he said.
The minister added that the Gini ratio or economic inequality ratio, based on BPS data, has experienced a significant decline.
"The Gini ratio experienced a significant decline in March 2024, namely to 0.379 points. A decrease of 0.009 points from the previous year's 0.388 points in March 2023. We know that the Gini index range is 0–1; the closer to zero the better," he explained.
He then emphasized the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration for reducing poverty and extreme poverty in the country.
He also underscored the importance of the role of regional governments in contributing to efforts to reduce poverty and extreme poverty levels.
"For matters related to poverty, they are a shared responsibility of the central and regional governments," he said.
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Translator: Lintang Budiyanti, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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