DIY Economy Grows 5.84%, Sultan HB X Launches Abhipraya Data System to Tackle Poverty

The economy of the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY) recorded impressive growth of 5.84 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing both the national and Java Island averages. Despite this positive performance, Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X offered a critical note on poverty reduction efforts. He asserted that high economic growth must be accompanied by effective poverty alleviation through precise data governance. In a Regional Development Control Coordination Meeting (Rakordal) for the second quarter of 2026 at the Kepatihan Complex, Yogyakarta, on Thursday (30/7), the DIY Government officially launched the Abhipraya Data Management System. This system is designed as an instrument to integrate poverty databases to support development planning and intervention evaluation. “As emphasised by the World Bank, inequality hinders poverty reduction and economic growth. Therefore, efforts to reduce poverty cannot rely solely on aid programmes,” the Sultan stated. He added that the use of integrated data is crucial to minimise inclusion errors (aid reaching the wrong targets) and exclusion errors (poor citizens not being recorded), in line with the implementation of the National Single Social and Economic Data as mandated by Presidential Instruction Number 4 of 2025. Beyond poverty, the Sultan also warned his administration to be vigilant against several macroeconomic risks that could disrupt regional stability. He instructed the Regional Inflation Control Team (TPID) to strengthen the 4K strategy (Supply Availability, Price Affordability, Distribution Smoothness, and Effective Communication). According to him, spikes in food prices act as a “regressive tax” that hits low-income communities the hardest. “Global and domestic pressures have the potential to trigger inflation and make the lower-middle class vulnerable to downward social mobility. If not anticipated, this condition could increase poverty and widen the inequality gap,” the Sultan concluded.