Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Lesser number of poor families in RP: survey
THE number of Filipino families who consider themselves poor have dropped to 47 percent (8 million) in June, after they lowered their living standards, a June 27-30 survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.
The survey, which had 1,200 families, revealed that the self-rated poverty (SRP) declined from 53 percent in February to 47 percent in June. It was the lowest level of SRP so far under the Arroyo administration, next to 46 per cent in June 2004.
Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo
The SRP in Metro Manila was 36 percent, 47 percent in Luzon, 52 percent in the Visayas, and 49 percent in Mindanao. Last February, the SRP was 39 percent in Metro Manila, 53 percent in Luzon, 59 percent in the Visayas, and 57 percent in Mindanao.
However, the drop was due a further lowering in the Filipinos' living standards.
The Self-Rated Poverty Threshold, or the monthly budget that poor households say they need in order not to be poor, has actually fallen in money terms despite the steady increase in the cost of living.
In Metro Manila, the threshold went down to P9,000 in June 2007 - the lowest so far under the Arroyo administration - from P10,000 in February. In June
2004 when the SRP was at its lowest under Arroyo, the threshold was at P10,000.
The threshold had actually reached P15,000 in Metro Manila in 2002 but Filipino families kept tightening their belts.
For the poor households in Luzon, the poverty threshold dropped from P6,000 in February to P5,000 in June. It stayed at P6,000 in Visayas but it declined in Mindanao from P5,000 to P4,000.
The poverty thresholds had peaked in Luzon and in the Visayas at P10,000 in May 2002 and at P8,000 in July 2001.
SWS said since mid-2004, the median poverty threshold of poor households in Metro Manila has considerably weakened against the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which rose by over 40 percent since its base year of 2000. A declining poverty threshold, despite rising cost of living, means that households are lowering their living standards, in other words, belt-tightening.
It said the poverty threshold in Metro Manila of P9,000 per month for June 2007 is equivalent to only P6,259 in base year 2000 purchasing power, after deflation by CPI.
It said in four SWS surveys in 2000, the base year of the CPI, the median SWS poverty threshold for Metro Manila was already P10,000 per month, equivalent to P14,380 per month at the June 2007 cost of living, given the new CPI of 143.8.
It said the difference between P14,380 and P9,000, which is P5,380 measures the extent of belt-tightening that took place. (JMR/Sunnex)
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