Jakarta – Indonesia's Gini ratio decreased slightly from 0.397 points in March 2016 to 0.394 points in September, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has said.
"The drop was because of considerable spending and better distribution of development," said BPS head Suhariyanto as reported by tribunnews.com on Friday, adding that the decline of the Gini ratio occurred both in urban areas and in villages.
The Gini ratio is a measure of inequality in which zero represents complete equality and one represents complete inequality.
He said the Gini ratio in urban area dropped to 0.409 in September from 0.410 in March, while the Ginti ratio in villages dropped to 0.316 points from 0.327, indicating that the wealth distribution in villages was much better than in urban areas.
It was a further drop of the country's Gini ratio as the BPS previously recorded that in September 2015 it was at 0.402 points.
Previously, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo stressed the importance of addressing inequality within society. He ordered his ministers to create policies to address socioeconomic disparities in the country.
Although Jokowi acknowledged that although the country's Gini had decreased significantly since 2015, the government still had a lot of work to do. (bbn)