Poverty in Indonesia

Poverty level has stopped falling is no surprise. There was a 126% increase in fuel prices last October catapulted inflation to 18%, meanwhile wages increased only marginally. Poor Indonesians number would have soared even more, up to 51m according to the statistics office, if the government had not given cash handouts to some 76m people to cushion the effects of the fuel-price increase (which eliminated a costly subsidy). Meanwhile activists are questioning the data. They are argue that the figures fail to give the full alarming picture.

For example, the Urban Poor Consortium believes that the number of people falling into poverty in Jakarta has risen by almost twice as much as the statisticians state. It can be happen partly because the government's definition of poverty—less money than is needed to afford a diet of 2,100 calories a day—is 152,847 rupiah ($16.80) a month. This type of measure is well below the more widely used benchmark of $1 a day. Using the $1-a-day measure, it is estimated that more than 80m Indonesians are in poverty.