Observer: poverty rate predicted to drop 13.5 percent

Antara News, Saturday, January 9, 2010 16:41 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Economic observer Umar Juoro has predicted that the poverty rate in Indonesia will drop by 13.5 percent this year.

"The poverty rate in the country is predicted to drop because of low inflation and the global economic recovery," Umar Juoro said here on Saturday.

He said the poverty rate in 2009 was recorded at 14.15 percent of the total population or about 32.53 million people while in 2008 it was 15.42 percent.

According to Juoro, the government would make every effort to reduce the poverty rate this year to 13 percent.

But the chairman of the directors board of the Center for Information and Development Studies (Cides) admitted that the decline in poverty rate by 13.5 percent this year was a bit higher than the government`s target of 13 percent.

Juoro expressed hope that the government would be able to create more job opportunities in formal sectors to reach its target of 13 percent poverty rate this year.

In 2009, inflation rate reached 2.78 percent or the lowest record in the past ten years since 1999 or about 2.1 percent.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati claimed that the low inflation rate in the midst of economic growth indicated that the economic stability had reached a premium level.