The country’s poverty rate declined to 22.4% in the first six months of the year from 23.7% in the same period in 2021.
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Undersecretary and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa on Friday, said that the poverty incidence is equivalent to 25.24 million Filipinos “whose per capita income is not sufficient to meet their basic food and non-food needs.”
According to Mapa, a family of five members needs at least PHP13,797 per month to meet their basic and non-basic food needs in the first half of 2023.
Meanwhile, subsistence incidence among Filipinos was recorded at 8.7% or about 9.79 million people compared to 9.9 percent in 2021.
Among families, the first semester poverty incidence was registered at 16.4% from 18% in 2021 or equivalent to 4.52 million families. This means that about 164 out of 1000 families are considered poor according to PSA data.
Additionally, subsistence incidence among families was recorded at 5.9% down from 7.1% in the same period in 2021.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said that fully-opening the economy and lifting all pandemic restrictions in 2022 “has allowed us to recover from the unprecedented combined impact of the pandemic and the government’s policy responses to the crisis.”
NEDA also asserted the continuous efforts of the government to address poverty in the country and in order to reach the single-digit poverty rate before the end of the current administration. (Brian Campued)
