"The government must overcome the poverty problem in the country."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The relatively high per capita income of US$3,000 is no guarantee for the prosperity of all people as the economic gap between the lower and the upper classes is increasingly wider, an observer said.
"As a country whose economic growth is recognized in the ASEAN region, the economic gap between its people has become wider and wider in the last four years," Iman Sugema, the director of the International Center for Applied Finance ad Economics (InterCAFE), said here on Tuesday.
He said that the high economic growth over the past few years had only been enjoyed by the upper class people.
Iman said that the government was not yet able to narrow and overcome the prosperity gap well. There are still 15.3 percent of the people who were still living under the poverty line and another 20 percent were within poor margin.
"The government must overcome the poverty problem in the country. With the country`s per capita income of US$3,000 the number of poor people should have been cut down," he said.
Economic analyst of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Latief Adam said meanwhile that the high economic growth was not directly related to the people`s prosperity.
That was reflected in the swelling of number of poor and unemployed people.
"From the balance between the percentage of poverty reduction and unemployment, it could be seen clearly the number of those who worked but most of them are in the poor category," he said.
(T.A014/KR-BSR)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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