Jakarta – The protracted economic crisis affecting Indonesia since 1997 has swelled the ranks of the country's poor to around 60 percent of the 215 million-strong population, an official said.

Gunawan Sumodiningrat, Vice President Hamzah Haz's deputy secretary, said in a lecture at a univerity in Malang, East Java that the growing number of poor was also due to their lack of motivation, skills and capital, the state Antara news agency said.

Sumodiningrat added that the absence of adequate public infrastructure and assisting institutions was also to blame.

An official survey on poverty showed the number of Indonesians living under the poverty line in 1996 at some 22.5 million, or 11.34 percent of the population. The advent of the economic crisis in 1997 pushed the percentage to 24.3 that year.

Sumodiningrat did not say how the poverty level is determined. There was no figure on the current income level marking poverty.