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Latest Reports Poverty
On Monday 5 August 2024 Indonesia Investments released the July 2024 edition of its monthly report. This report discusses various economic, political and social topics that were relevant (to Indonesia) in the month of July 2024.
At the beginning of July 2024, Indonesia’s Statistical Agency (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS) released the latest poverty statistics of Indonesia. We consider it worthwhile to take a close look at the data as poverty is an important indicator for assessing the country’s socio-economic situation. After all, economic activity affects society, but at the same time the economy is shaped by social processes.
On Wednesday (03/06/2020) Indonesia Investments released the May 2020 edition of its monthly report. In this edition, titled 'in the Eye of the Storm', we focus specifically on the social implications of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on Indonesian society. Hence, unemployment and poverty are two topics that deserve specific attention.
On Monday (06/08) Indonesia Investments released the July 2018 edition of its monthly research report. The report aims to inform the reader of the key political, economic and social developments that occurred in Indonesia in the month of July 2018 and also touches upon key international developments that impacted on the Indonesian economy.
The emergence of a money flow in the context of the government's Family Hope Program (in Indonesian: Program Keluarga Harapan, or PKH), a cash transfer program for the nation's poorest households, is hoped to boost household consumption in Indonesia in 2018. In February 2018 the first phase of this year's PKH program will be conducted.
The Indonesian government aims to provide affordable housing for the nation's poorer (low-income) households through the One Million Houses program, a program that was launched in mid-2015 by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. However, property developers complain that in most regions it is tough to obtain all necessary permits to construct the houses.
So far this year Indonesia's "One Million Houses Program" is well on its way. Based on information from Indonesia's Public Works and Housing Ministry a total of 499,702 houses were constructed under the program in the first half of 2017, achieving 49.9 percent of the full-year target.
Based on the latest data from Indonesia's Statistics Agency (BPS), released on Monday (17/07), Indonesia's absolute poverty rose to 27.77 million people in March 2017 (from 27.76 million in September 2016). However, the country's relative poverty figure fell to 10.64 percent of the population in March 2017 (from 10.70 percent in September 2016). This seeming paradox - rising absolute poverty but falling relative poverty - is caused by Indonesia's growing population. The Indonesian population now numbers about 261 million people.
A recent report released by Oxfam, a global aid and development charity, highlights the alarming level of income distribution inequality in Indonesia. According to the findings of this report, the four wealthiest Indonesians (combined) have more assets compared to the 100 million poorest Indonesians (combined). Indonesia's top four billionaires are worth USD $25 billion, which is approximately the same combined amount owned by the bottom 40 percent of the Indonesian population.
In order to escape the middle income trap (and become a high income country), the government of Indonesia needs to raise efforts to enhance the development of an inclusive economy by reforming the education and technology sectors as well as by combating social injustice. With a "business as usual" approach the government will not succeed in escaping this trap, says economist Faisal Basri. Indonesian society is currently highly unfair as 1 percent of the population controls 50.3 percent of the nation's total assets.
Latest Columns Poverty
Today (20/10), Central Jakarta seems to have changed into one big party as Joko Widodo was inaugurated as Indonesia’s seventh president earlier this morning. For the remainder of the day celebrations will be held at Monas (National Monument) and surrounding areas. However, it is of vital importance that Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi) will start to focus on this presidential duties tomorrow as the country is facing a number of economic challenges. What are these challenges?
Speculation has emerged that Indonesian President-elect Joko Widodo (Jokowi) plans to raise prices of subsidized fuels immediately after taking office in late October 2014. On Tuesday (02 /09), Jokowi said that he sees no other option than to raise these prices in an effort to relieve the budget deficit, curb the wide current account deficit and make more funds available for long-term productive public investments (such as on infrastructure, healthcare and education). The government has set aside IDR 291.1 trillion (USD $25 billion) for fuel subsidies in 2015.
When campaigning, presidential candidates will always promise a bright future in order to gain votes. It is particularly easy for a new presidential candidate to promise golden mountains as opposed to the incumbent president who needs to be more cautious making promises as people can point to the (failed) results of his promises during the presidential term. The 2014 Indonesian presidential election was particularly interesting as we saw two new presidential candidates and, thus, the ‘inflation of promises’.
Head of Statistics Indonesia (BPS) Suryamin announced on Tuesday (01/07) that the number of poor people in Indonesia declined slightly to 28.28 million people (or 11.25 percent of the total population) in March 2014, from 28.60 million (11.46 percent of the total population) in September 2013. However, compared to March last year, poverty has increased by 110,000 people due to high inflation and a slowing economy; economic growth slowed to 5.78 percent in 2013 and this decline continued to 5.21 percent in the first quarter of 2014.
Senior economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), Didier Damanhuri, believes that Indonesia’s two presidential candidates - Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi) and Prabowo Subianto - are both similar in economic approach as both men are primarily focused on high gross domestic product (GDP) growth as the measurement for economic development, while, in fact, many countries that only focus on GDP growth show a high degree of economic inequality.
On Monday (23/06), the World Bank released its latest analysis regarding the Indonesian economy. In its report, titled ‘Indonesia: Avoiding the Trap’, the World Bank states that Indonesia needs to implement a six reforms in priority areas in order to avoid the so-called middle income trap (referring to the situation where a country gets stuck at a certain income level). Without these critical reforms, the country’s economic growth will slow and may not be able to escape the middle income trap.
Indonesian Finance Minister Chatib Basri said that the country's economic growth in 2015 is targeted in the range of 5.5 to 6.3 percent. Amid further Federal Reserve tapering and possible interest rate hikes in the world's largest economy, chances of capital outflows from emerging markets (including Indonesia) are becoming larger. Basri said that these global conditions impact on GDP growth, the Indonesian rupiah exchange rate and inflation. Therefore, 2015 is a transition year, reflected by tighter economic projections and state spending.
Chairman of Indonesia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Suryo Bambang Sulisto stated that the most crucial problem which Indonesia is facing currently as well as in the foreseeable future is unemployment. Sulisto said that while the population of Indonesia has grown continuously in the past decade, unaffected by family planning programs, employment opportunities have not grown accordingly. In fact, they have declined. At end-2013, Indonesia's unemployment rate stood at 6.3 percent (of the total labor force).
After Indonesia's outlook for economic growth in 2014 was revised down from 6 percent to between 5.8 and 6 percent, the government also revised targets of poverty and unemployment reduction. In the 2014 State Budget (APBN 2014), the government set the targeted poverty rate at 9.0 to 10.5 percent of Indonesia's total population. However, the government revised down this poverty rate to between 10.54 and 10.75 percent, which is also far below the target that was set in the National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) at 8 to 10 percent.
Despite rising concerns about the slowing pace of the Indonesian economy, the deputy minister of Finance Bambang Brodjonegoro reminded investors that Indonesia's economic growth in the third quarter of 2013 still constitutes one of the highest growth rates around the globe. Economic expansion in Q3-2013 slid to 5.6% in Southeast Asia's largest economy. With the exception of China (7.8% GDP growth in Q3-2013), Indonesia's growth continues to outpace growth in other emerging markets, such as Brazil (3.3%) and Turkey (4%).
