Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said the middle class in Indonesia is growing very rapidly. Nevertheless Hatta hopes that a growing middle class is evenly both in urban and rural areas. For the current government continues to encourage the development of new growth centers in Indonesia evenly.

"The danger that growth occurs only in the cities, while in rural undeveloped," said Hatta at Prisma Tour Seminar "Infidelity Business and Politics" at the UGM Graduate Building, on Friday afternoon (8/3) .

Hatta explained that the middle class are the people who have spending between 2-20 dollars per day. He provided data on the rising middle class, that is if the 2003 is around 81 million, the year 2010 has gone up to 131 million people.

"There is an increase of about 50 million," said Hatta.

On occasion, Hatta also hoped that investment growth could continue to increase as consumer needs are also increased. Hatta had deplored efforts to improve the investment climate which has made some of them are not as expected.

"Then one of them through MP3EI (Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development) we are optimistic that in 2025 Indonesia became the number seven strong economy," he said.

Meanwhile economists Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) UGM, Prof. Dr. Sri Adiningsih, M.Sc assess the rapid growth of the middle class in Indonesia could become a threat to the Indonesian nation if you do not watch.

"What's done can be seen in Africa, Asia and Latin America," said Adiningsih.

This is quite reasonable because the threat is still going on expenditure inequality increased population numbers and the quality of the Indonesian people is still low. Some of the areas that can still be expected to improve the economy of Indonesia, said Adiningsih, including through micro and informal sector.

"Let us not become stagnant economic growth countries such as ADB's forecast 11 emerging countries in Asia," she said.

Sources: Satria/UGM