One in four Filipinos considered poor
If government statistics are accurate, the number of poor Filipinos fell sharply in the first half of last year as the country's economy surged, lifting millions of households above the government's poverty line.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported yesterday that one out of four Filipinos, or 24.9 per cent of the population, was still considered poor, based on average incomes as recorded by the agency in the first semester of 2013. This was down from 27.9 per cent of Filipinos below the poverty line in the same period the year before.
“The remarkable improvement in the poverty incidence is evidence that the Philippines’ development strategies are heading in the direction of inclusive growth,” Socio-economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said of the PSA report.
This brings the Philippines close to its latest goal of reducing poverty to between 20 and 23 per cent by next year, although this target is far from the previous Millennium Development Goal commitment to bring it down to 16.6 per cent.
For the first time in the country’s history, the number of people considered “extremely poor” also dropped to 7.7 per cent from 10.7 per cent.
