PSA plans methodology revisions in measuring poverty thresholds

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will be laying down this year the groundwork for the revision of the methodology for measuring the country’s poverty threshold, the minimum income needed by a family to meet basic food and non-food needs.

This is meant to reflect the changes in the consumption trends among households in almost decade since the methodology was last revisited in 2011.

National Statistician and PSA chief Dennis Mapa said there is a need to revisit the methodology as well as the food menu recommended by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) as the current one in use may no longer sufficiently represent the consumption habits of households at the provincial level.

Revising the methodology will have a bearing on determining the country’s poverty incidence and may be used as a guide in the provision of government cash transfers to the country’s poorest households.

Mapa said a technical working group composed of experts will be assembled this year to review the methodology and prepare the proposal to the PSA Board which is chaired by NEDA.

“There is a need to revisit the methodology because it’s been nine years since 2011 and we are already planning to have some revisions,” he told reporters after a seminar on poverty held at the Ateneo de Manila University Wednesday.

At the center of determining the poverty threshold – especially the food threshold – is the menu recommended by the FNRI that represents items that meet the daily individual nutritional requirements and the daily energy intake of 2,100 calories.

This sample food basket created in 2011 includes dietary staples and mainstays for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack such as eggs, coffee with milk, rice, corn, mung beans, vegetables, dried fish, pork, bread, boiled bananas and sweet potato among others.

The items in the basket were chosen for having the least cost for providing the nutritional requirement and calorie intake.

In revising the methodology, the PSA will consider the revision of this food basket to reflect the current food items purchased by households considering some of the items in the basket may no longer be regularly consumed or brand preferences may have changed.

Depending on how the menu will change and adjusting for current prices, this threshold may rise.

“First we will have to look at the data from the National Nutrition Survey and we will identify whether this menu is still the one being consumed at the provincial level. We will look at the data on the ground,” said Mapa.

The revised methodology for the poverty threshold will most likely be used in the poverty surveys after the present administration, he noted.

“It will depend on the PSA Board but usually as a rule we do not change the estimation procedure during the administration. But we can already start the process of revision because it also takes time,” said Mapa.

In 2018, it was found that there were fewer Filipinos not earning enough to meet basic food and non-food needs in 2018 even with the rise in thresholds.

Poverty incidence among the population, pertaining to the proportion of Filipinos whose per capita incomes were not enough to meet their basic food and non-food needs, fell to 16.6 percent in 2018 from the revised 23.3 percent in 2015.

This translates to 17.6 million Filipinos living below the poverty threshold of P10,727 monthly for a family of five in 2018.

This rose by 13.5 percent from the poverty threshold of P9,452 in 2015 during which 23.5 million Filipinos live below this.

The higher poverty threshold in 2018 was largely caused by the surge in inflation during the year.