Fewer poor Filipino families at end-2018

Filipino families who considered themselves poor or "mahirap" fell to 11.6 million in the last quarter of 2018, a Social Weather Stations survey showed.

In the fourth quarter 2018 survey conducted from Dec. 16 to 19, 50 percent of half of the respondents rated themselves poor, two percentage points down from the 52 percent or 12.2 million families in September 2018.

The latest survey result came after a 10-point increase in self-rated poverty over two consecutive quarters in 2018.

The proportion of self-rated poor families was 42 percent in March 2018. It increased by six points to 48 percent in June and four points to 52 percent in September.

The resulting average self-rated poverty rate this year rose by two points from the average 46 percent in 2017 to 48 percent in 2018. It was also four points above the record-low average of 44 percent in 2016.

"This is the second consecutive increase in the annual self-rated poverty rate since 2016," the SWS noted.

SWS attributed the two-point nationwide decline in self-rated poverty to a sharp decrease in Mindanao and a slight decrease in the Visayas, offset by increases in Metro Manila and Balance Luzon.