Pinoy families considering themselves poor up in Q2 — SWS

MANILA, Philippines — The proportion of Filipino families considering themselves poor increased to 11.1 million in June pushed up by increments recorded in most areas especially in Mindanao, a new Social Weather Stations survey released Saturday found.

Results of a June 22-26 SWS poll of 1,200 adults showed self-rated poverty jumped to 45% in the second quarter, up 7 percentage points from the record-low 38% (estimated 9.5 million families) chalked up in the preceding three months.

The latest reading bucked a 14-point downtrend seen over the previous three quarters.

According to SWS, the 7-point spike in the proportion of self-rated poor families was mainly due to 19-point rise in Mindanao, as well as increases of 5 points in Balance Luzon and 3 points in Metro Manila. It was steady in Visayas.

SWS also reported that the minimum monthly budget that households need in order not to be classified as poor inched up from P10,000 to P15,000. Of that amount, respondents said they still lack P5,000 to make ends meet every month.

Meanwhile, an estimated 8.5 million families, or 35%, consider their food as poor in the second quarter, SWS said, surging 8 points from the record-low 27% — or an estimated 6.8 million households — registered in January-March period.

Respondents said they need a minimum monthly food budget P6,000, up from P5,000 previously.

Government data shows poverty incidence among individuals — the proportion of Filipinos whose incomes fell below the per capita poverty threshold — was at 21% in the first semester of 2018, compared to 27.6% recorded in the first half of 2015.

The latest poverty data translates to a reduction of more than five million poor individuals to 23.1 million in 2018 compared to 28.8 million in 2015.

The Duterte administration is targeting to slash poverty rate in the country to 14% by 2022.

In the same report, SWS said three million families that used to be poor one to four years ago made it out of poverty as of June, while 1.2 million households have been classified as “newly poor.”