- VIVAnews/Nurcholis Anhari Lubis
VIVAnews – The World Bank assessed that the growth of the middle class in Indonesia is very rapid. Every year this class grows by 7 million.
“Compared to similar countries, the growth of the middle class in Indonesia is very rapid,” said World Bank Country Director for Indonesia Stefen Koeberie on Wednesday in Jakarta.
World Bank Emerging Global Trends Development Prospect Group Manager Mansoor Dailami said that the middle class growth as what occurred in Indonesia also happens in other developing countries. The growth pushes consumption. “This encourages economic growth,” said Mansoor.
Based on World Bank’s data, in 2003 the number of the middle class people in Indonesia was only 37.7 percent of the population, but in 2010 it reached 134 million or 56.5 percent.
According to World Bank’s study, this middle class comprises four divisions. The first is the middle class with an income between US$2 and US$4 per day (38 percent). Second, the middle class with daily income of US$5 to US$6 per person (11.7 percent).
Third, the middle class with an income of US6 to US10 per day (5 percent) and the middle class earning US$10 to US$20 per day (1.3 percent).
Meanwhile, Bank Danamon chief economist Anton Gunawan said that now Indonesia’s middle class is in fact pushing up consumption. However, in the future it wil be the source of development financing though financial market in line with income increase. Financial sector is closely linked to the middle class growth.
“Later on this middle class more needs insurance and so on. This is investor’s long-term basis for financial market which is needed to finance development,” said Anton.
On the other hand, the number of middle class people will also increase Indonesia’s democracy quality. One of the problems of democracy is voters who are not aware of politics, not up-to-date about politics and only supporting one notable. This was the opinion of Managing Director of Paramadina Public Policy Institute Wijayanto.
“So the better middle income will result in more voters who are aware of politics and the quality of democracy will be better,” said Wijayanto.
Translated by Indah Lestari
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