PHL poverty incidence shrinks by 3 percentage points — govt statistics agency

There were fewer poor Filipino families in the first half of last year than in the first six months of 2012, according to latest government estimates of poverty incidence made public on Tuesday.

 

Annual Poverty Indicator Survey (APIS) findings showed that “24.9 percent of Filipinos were considered poor based on their average income in the first semester of 2013, down from 27.9 percent in the same period in 2012.”

 

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said this development translates to family poverty incidence declining to 19.1 percent from 22.3 percent.

 

Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan characterized the change in poverty incidence as a “remarkable improvement.” 

The PSA reported that subsistence incidence, or the proportion of extremely poor Filipino families or individuals who could not afford to meet their basic food requirements, declined in the period to 7.7 percent among Filipino families and 10.7 percent among Filipinos.

 

Balisacan, who heads the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), noted that the “per capita family income for the first, second and third deciles posted growth rates of 12.3 percent, 8.4 percent, and 8.4 percent, respectively.”

 

Balisacan attributed the shrinking of the level of poverty “faster growth of poor households’ income compared with the slower increase of basic commodity prices” and traced this to the government's social programs, including the Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT), which he said “helped improve the welfare of a greater number of poor through increases in income.”

 

Poverty threshold was at P8,022 in 2013

 

A family of five needed at least an average monthly income of P5,590 “to meet the family’s basic food needs.” This amount is called the food poverty threshold.

 

For basic food and non-food needs, the PSA said Filipino families need at least P8,022 on the average every month to meet both basic food and non-food needs.  This amount is the monthy poverty threshold.

 

These amounts represent the monthly food threshold and monthly poverty threshold, respectively. They indicate increases of about 2.4 percent in food threshold and 2.6 percent in poverty threshold from the first semester of 2012 to the first semester of 2013.

 

“Food threshold is the minimum income required to meet basic food needs and satisfy the nutritional requirements set by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) to ensure that one remains economically and socially productive. It is used to measure extreme or subsistence poverty,” the PSA said.

 

It added that (p)overty threshold is a similar concept, expanded to include basic non-food needs  such as clothing, housing, transportation, health, and education expenses.

 

The government used to based its poverty statistics on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey, but the FIES is conducted only every three years and was last done in 2012.

 

“However, recognizing the clamor for more frequent release of official poverty statistics, the PSA, through the recommendation of the NEDA Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan, used the 2013 APIS as a tool for collecting income information similar to the FIES.  

 

The PSA said the APIS “used more detailed questions on income by adopting the income module of the FIES, with some modifications in the section containing the list of wage and salary workers in the family.”

 

“The 2013 APIS questionnaire is composed of 32 pages (6 pages on expenditure and 19 pages on income) while the 2012 FIES questionnaire has 78 pages (47 pages for expenditure and 24 pages on income).  Expenditure items come before the income questions,” the PSA added.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, the SWS said the median poverty threshold for poor households was at P10,000 in Mindanao, P12,000 in Metro Manila, P10,000 in the Visayas and P9,000 in Balance Luzon.   — Danessa O. Rivera/Earl Victor L. Rosero, GMA News