President: RI`s poverty rate down from 42.2 pct to 16.5 pct

"I will honestly say that the downward trend in the poverty rate has continued and that the figure now is not 49.5 percent as alleged out there," the president said.
He said the poverty rate had kept dropping from year to year and in 2005 it was recorded at 15.9 percent but it rose again in 2006 because of an energy crisis following a rise in world oil prices.
The president said 49.5 percent was the poverty rate figure according to the World Bank which differed from the government`s figure that had been computed by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS).
"We have always used BPS data but if there are people who use World Bank data, they are as wrong as the bank," Yudhoyono said.
On the occasion the president commended the fact that the theme of the commemoration of Mother`s Day emphasized the poverty issue and women`s lagging position.