Comparing poverty levels in the Jokowi and SBY eras, who is the champion?

Bisnis.com, DAKARTA – Poverty level Indonesia has seen a decline to its lowest level in the last 10 years or in the period 2014-2024. How does the decline in poverty levels compare to the era of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)?

Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) noted that the poverty rate in the country as of March 2024 has fallen to 9.03 percent, while the number of poor people has fallen to 25.2 million people.

Plt. Central Statistics Agency Principal Secretary Imam Mashdi said that the poverty rate will continue to decline until May 2024, after seeing an increase during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apart from this, the Imam said that the poverty rate was also the lowest since 2014, when it was recorded at 11.25 percent, a decrease of 2.22 percent.

“The poverty rate in March 2024 of 9.03 percent is the lowest poverty rate in a decade,” he said at a press conference on Monday (1/7/2024).

If you look at the historical data, the poverty rate has been constantly decreasing from 2014 to March 2019 to reach 9.41%. However, the poverty rate has increased again due to the Covid-19 pandemic to reach 9.78% in March 2020.

The poverty rate increased further and peaked in March 2021 with a double-digit level of 10.14%, which was then successfully reduced to 9.54% in March 2022.

Poverty levels in the Jokowi era vs SBY

Overall, the decline in poverty levels during the two periods of President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) administration was still lower than that recorded under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's (SBY) administration.

Based on notes Business, SBY has managed to further reduce the poverty rate to 5.41%. SBY managed to reduce the rate from 16.66% or 36.2 million people in 2004 to 11.25% or 28.2 million people during the last period of his rule in 2014.

Meanwhile, the poverty rate during the Jokowi administration period was only able to decrease by 2.22 percent, from 11.25 percent or 28.2 million people in 2014 to 9.03 percent or 25.2 million people.

The government, in the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2019-2024, has set itself the objective of reducing poverty to 6 to 7%.

The government also adjusted this target while preparing the Government Work Plan (RKP) 2024 to 6.5%-7.5%. However, the poverty rate, which was 9.03% in March 2024, remains well above the government's target.

The Imam said that one of the factors that curbed the poverty level was the surge in food commodity prices that occurred between March 2023 and March 2024.

“There are some factors that are holding back the decline in poverty levels, including the increase in prices of basic commodities from March 2023 to March 2024, such as rice up 20.07 percent, pure chicken eggs up 11.56 percent and red chillies up 45.94 percent,” he said.

In fact, the role of food products in the poverty line is much more important than that of non-food products, with a distribution reaching 74.44%.

“The increase in the prices of several basic commodities certainly affects people's consumption and spending levels, which is reflected in the poverty rate,” he explained.

Enlarge

Factors for reducing poverty levels

On the other hand, the Imam said that the national economic conditions tend to be positive. Several factors contribute to the reduction of poverty levels, first and foremost the domestic economic growth rate which remains strong, namely 5.11% in the first quarter of 2024.

Second, The exchange rate of farmers in March 2024 increased by 7.7% to 119.39, as well as the average wages of agricultural, forestry and fisheries workers which increased by 8.42% on an annual basis in February 2024.

Third, The government is offering various social assistance programs between January and March 2024, including rice food aid, non-cash food aid (NPFA), Family Hope Program (PKH), and Smart Indonesia Program (PIP).

On another occasion, the head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance, Febrio Kacaribu, said that the poverty level, which had managed to decline until May 2024, was mainly supported by strong domestic economic activity.

He said the reduction in poverty levels was also supported by various social assistance programmes (bansos), particularly in response to the increase in food inflation in early 2024.

“The government will continue to be committed to maintaining inflation stability so that it can encourage an increase in the purchasing power of the population, which in turn can accelerate the reduction of poverty levels and improve the well-being of the population,” he said.

In the meantime, Yusuf Rendy Manilet, an economist at the Indonesian Center for Economic Reform (CORE), said the government's efforts to reduce the poverty rate to single digits should be appreciated. Moreover, after increasing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, Yusuf believes that the challenges facing the government in reducing the poverty rate to a lower level will become more complicated when the poverty rate has already reached single digits.

“This is because the government will be faced with increasingly complex poverty issues. “The approach taken must be simultaneous, comprehensive and involve many parties,” he said. Business, Tuesday (07/02/2024).

Without comprehensive measures, he continued, efforts to reduce poverty will be difficult to achieve with any hope. business as usual as a unique solution to further reduce poverty levels.

“It is not surprising that the government has revised the target of reducing poverty levels by 2024. Keeping in mind that the problem of solutions must be more comprehensive and at the same time, if we refer to the current data, the challenge of preventing people from falling into poverty is absolutely not easy,” he explained.