Kupastuntas.co, Bandar Lampung - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Lampung Province noted that the areas with the most poor population in Lampung Province are in East Lampung Regency with 149,120 people.

Until March 2023, BPS Lampung Province recorded that there were 970,067 poor people in Lampung Province. The number of poor people has decreased compared to data for March 2022 and there were 1,002,041 people or a decrease of 31.74 percent.

The poor population figure for March 2023 consists of 8.02 percent of the urban poor and 12.65 percent of the rural poor.

For 2022, BPS Lampung noted that East Lampung Regency had the most poor people, namely 149,120 people. Followed by Central Lampung Regency with 143,340 people, and South Lampung with 136,210 people (complete see table).

The Head of BPS for Lampung Province, Atas Parlindungan Lubis said that several factors influence the poverty rate, including economic growth, household consumption expenditure, inflation rate and unemployment rate.

"Several factors have a direct impact on the poverty rate in an area. If these factors improve, it can affect the reduction in the poverty rate," said Lubis, recently.

Head of the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) of Lampung Province, Mulyadi Irsan said that currently the Lampung Provincial Government is focusing on alleviating poverty, especially in rural areas.

"Please pray. The governor and the deputy governor are continuing to work to reduce the poverty rate, and this is also related to our stunting rate which has also decreased," said Mulyadi, last Sunday (13/8).

Mulyadi explained that several efforts have been made to reduce the poverty rate by increasing public spending which is expected to have an impact on increasing economic growth.

"Our effort is to increase people's spending power. So we increase people's spending ability. Because the source of poverty is from food, from eggs to rice to cigarettes," he said.

Apart from that, continued Mulyadi, the Lampung Provincial Government also has a Victory Farmer Card (KPB) program which participates in giving reinforcement to farmers so that they have the ability to spend on a daily basis.

"Apart from KPB, there are smart villages, smart schools, education, the farmer's economy, MSMEs and the people's economy. So there is mutual collaboration, it cannot be just one sector," he explained.

Economic observer from the University of Lampung (Unila), Asrian Hendi Caya, stated that the poverty rate still needs to be continuously reduced so that poverty in Lampung is immediately eradicated.

He explained, the number of workers is currently increasing. However, most of the increase came from family workers and casual workers.

"Family workers are not paid, while casual workers are odd whose income is uncertain. This is a source of poverty," he said.

According to him, local governments and related stakeholders must be more concerned with increasing the number of jobs and efforts that can continuously increase people's income.

"The economic sector should be strengthened, creating independent jobs or permanent and daily workers," he explained. He explained, to support poverty reduction, regional inflation rates need to be maintained. Because inflation is related to the poverty line.

"If prices rise, the poverty line rises. The higher the poverty line, the more people are classified as poor. Especially if the increase in income is lower than the increase in prices," he said. (*)