Palace: Self-rated poverty dip due to lower December inflation

January 13, 2019

Malacanang on Sunday hailed the decline in the number of Filipinos who considered themselves as “poor,” attributing it on the lower inflation in December 2018.

The Social Weather Stations survey released on Saturday showed that about 600,000 families claimed that they did not think anymore that they were poor in December.

“The Palace welcomes the December 2018 survey on self-rated poverty conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) indicating that 50 percent of Filipino families consider themselves as 'poor', a drop from September 2018’s 52 percent,” Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

The survey also showed a drop in the number of Filipino families rating their food as "poor" at 34 percent in December 2018 compared to 36 percent last September 2018.

“Such improvements may be perceived to be in consonance with the December 2018 drop of inflation, registering at 5.1 percent -- the lowest since June 2018,” Panelo said.

He said the Duterte administration remained optimistic that many Filipino families will continue to feel more comfort this year with President Rodrigo Duterte’s “tireless efforts in addressing and taming the inflationary effects of the prices of basic goods and commodities”.

Panelo said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has advanced the forecast that inflation for 2019 is expected to decelerate below 4 percent.

“Even as we acknowledge such positive development, we note however that the poverty among Filipinos is still high,” he said.

“In addressing it, we must, as articulated by Sec. Pernia of NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority), sustain high economic growth that creates many jobs and reduce prices and inflation,” he added.

Panelo said the economic managers are “vigorously pursuing policies and programs geared towards reducing the poverty level and propelling the country’s economic development to a degree satisfactory to the administration’s goal of not only giving our countrymen comfortable lives but putting our country at par with our fast developing industrialised Asian neighbors”.

The latest SWS survey showed that over 11.6 million Filipinos consider themselves poor while around 7.9 million families rated their food as "food poor." Ella Dionisio/DMS