Ensuring no one is left behind

An economic boom is lifting more people out of poverty in the Philippines. Its statistics authority reports that Filipinos living below the poverty line are estimated at 21% of the population in the first half of 2018 compared with 27.6% in the same period in 2015.

MANILA: The ranks of the poor in Philippines are moderating as the nation sustains among the fastest economic growth in the region.

Filipinos living below the poverty line were estimated at 21% of the population in the first half of 2018 compared with 27.6% in the same period in 2015, the Philippines Statistics Authority said in a report yesterday.

The poverty incidence, based on a survey conducted every three years, eased even as inflation accelerated last year.

Poverty declined as infrastructure projects created new jobs and the state expanded its cash handouts.

“Thanks to sustained economic growth and critical and broadbased reforms and investments that have translated to employment-generation and social protection,” according to Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia.

The Philippines is working to meet its target of reducing the poverty rate to at least 14% by the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in 2022, his spokesman Salvador Panelo said. To meet that goal, at least a million Filipinos must be lifted from poverty each year.

The nation can become an upper middle-income country this year, ahead of its 2022 target, Pernia said.

The poverty threshold – the minimum amount a family of five must have to meet basic needs -- is pegged at 10,481 pesos (RM826) a month in the first half of 2018. That’s 11% more than in the first half of 2015.

Filipino families with incomes below the poverty line were estimated at 16.1% in the first half of 2018. That’s less than 22.2% in 2015.

Subsistence incidence or the ratio of Filipino families with incomes below the food threshold of 7,337 pesos (RM576) a month was estimated at 6.2%. That compares with 9.9% in 2015. —