Poverty Line Set Higher In East Java

Surabaya, E Java, July 2 (Antara) - The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said the poverty line was set 3.3 percent higher in East Java, measured by per capita income per month. Head of the provincial BPS M Sairi Hasbullah said here on Tuesday that food contributed 73.59 percent to the poverty line. The poverty line was set at Rp282,796 in income per capita in March 2014 up from Rp273,758 in September 2013, the East Java provincial office of BPS said. The increase in poverty line was higher in rural areas than in urban areas, Sairi said here on Tuesday. "The poverty line rose 3.39 percent in rural areas as against an increase of 3.2 percent in urban areas," he said. He said the poverty rate in the province decline 0.32 percentage point to 12.42 percent in March 2014 from 12.73 percent in September 2013. "Urban people living in poverty in East Java made up 32.08 percent of the total number of 1.535 million people categorized as poor in the province," he said. He described as an achievement the decline in the percentage of people living in poverty in East Java. He said East Java, which recorded a 0.55 percentage point decline in poverty rate in 6 months until March 2014, was the second after Banten among the provinces succeeding in cutting the highest poverty rate. Jakarta even recorded an increase of 0.2 percentage point, he said. He said altogether, the country had 28.28 million people living in poverty or 11.25 percent of the country`s total population in March 2014. The number rose from 28.17 million in March 2013 or 11.36 percent of the country`s total population.