The decline in the number of poor people in the period March-September 2011 happened in urban as well as rural areas, acting head of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Suryamin, said here on Monday.
Citing the results of a national social-economic survey the bureau had conducted last September, he said the number of poor people in urban areas which in March was recorded at 11.05 million (9.23 percent of the country`s population), had dropped by 0.14 percent to 10.95 million in September.
In rural areas, their number had dropped by 0.13 percent from 19.97 million (15.72 percent) in March to 18.94 million (15.56 percent) in September.
According to Suryamin, the decrease in the number of poor people was related to a number of factors, namely a downward trend in inflation and prices of basic necessaries, improved farmers` income, better general economic conditions and a decline in the open unemployment rate.
"During the March-September period in 2011, the general inflation rate had remained relatively low, namely 2.25 percent. The prices of a number of basic necessaries such as frying oil, sugar, green and red chillies also saw a slide," he said.
During the same period, there was also an upward trend in farmers` exchange value.
In addition, during the third quarter of 2011, the national economy grew at an encouraging rate of 6.4 percent which was a gain compared to the first quarter of the year.
Household expenditures rose by 3.6 percent in the period.
The open unemployment rate in September had dropped by 0.24 percent from the figure in August while the number of semi-employed people rose from 34.19 million to 34.59 million.
The survey results showed that the islands with the largest numbers of poor people (25.25 percent of population) were Maluku and Papua islands and that with the smallest number (6.88 percent) Kalimantan).
On the whole, most of the country`s poor people, namely 16.74 million, were to be found on Java island whereas the island with the smallest number of poor people (0.97 million) was Kalimantan.
(SYS/H-AJM/S012)
Editor: Suryanto
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