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27 million Indonesians live in poverty

JAKARTA, Jan. 4 (PNA/ANTARA News) -- The number of Indonesians living in poverty fell to 27.76 million, or 10.7 percent of the population, by September from March last year, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has said.

"The figure fell 0.25 percent compared to 28.01 million, or 10.86 percent of the total population, as of March 2016," BPS Chief Suhariyanto said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

The number of people living in poverty in urban areas fell from 7.79 percent of the total population as of March last year to 7.73 percent as of September.

Likewise, the number of people living in poverty in rural areas fell to 13.96 percent of the total population as of September from 14.11 percent as of March.

The number of people living in poverty in rural areas fell 0.39 million to 17.28 million as of September from 17.67 million as of March.

The BPS noted that food commodities played a bigger role than non-food commodities, including housing, clothes, education and healthcare, in contributing to the fall in poverty.

In September, food commodities contributed 73.19 percent to poverty line compared to 73.50 percent in March.

"Among food commodities that contributed a lot to poverty in rural areas are rice, cigarette, beef, egg, sugar, instant noodle, shallot and tempeh," he said.

Beef was one of the food commodities contributing to poverty because September 2016 coincided with Idul Adha (Day of Sacrifice), he said.

The non-food commodities that contributed to the decline in poverty were housing, electricity bill, gasoline and education fees. (PNA/Antara)

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