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The government admitted to having failed to control rice
prices over the past year, which contributed to a surge of the number
of poor people, as recently revealed in a survey conducted by the
Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
Presidential spokesperson Andi Mallarangeng said Saturday the failure
to control rice prices, which increased up to 30 percent, had been
triggered by slower growth in rice production compared to that of
consumption and population.
He said the government had actually predicted that the number of people
living below the poverty line would rise, but it had succeeded in
minimizing the increase to less than four million.
"The government will have to sharpen its policies to be able to
stabilize rice prices because an increase means that the people,
especially those who are economically disadvantaged, have to spend
more," he said on the sidelines of the Global Inter-media Dialog.
Andi said President Yudhoyono had urged increased rice production to
meet growing national consumption.
"The President just went to Palangkaraya and found out that there is
one million hectares of peat land that could be cultivated to plant
staple foods, including paddy.
"We are aware that we need to sharpen our policies so that the price of
rice can be stabilized and be made affordable to the poor," he said.
The BPS announced Friday in its national survey that the number of poor
people had gone up by almost four million from February last year to
March this year, from 35.10 million to 39.05 million.
Besides the high rice prices, the agency said the increase in the
number of poor was also triggered by the increase in fuel prices in
March and October 2005, which had an adverse impact on the prices of
basic commodities and sparked nationwide protests.
The BPS said the figure could have reached up to 50.8 million, had it
not been for the efforts of the government to provide cash assistance
and other compensation.
The survey was made by calculating the number of people who could not
afford the minimum monthly consumption of staple foodstuffs at Rp
152,847. The limit was raised from last year's Rp 129,108.
"But (the increasing number of poor people) is normal. That's the way
it has been. It can go up and go down," Andi said when asked about
President Yudhoyono's response to the BPS report.
He said there was always a movement in the figure, mostly because
people living near the poverty line were vulnerable to prices increases
such as fuel hikes.
The government imported 200,000 tons of rice last year to meet the
minimum national supply of one million tons, and plans to import
200,000 more before the year ends.
The current national supply stands at around 550,000 tons because,
according to the government, much of it had to be disbursed for victims
of natural disasters.
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