Monday, October 31, 2005

Philippines Poverty Figures Drop

Government Critics will probably not believe it, but based on the latest SWS survey results, the proportion of households heads reporting themselves as “mahirap” went down to 49 percent in August 2005 from 57 percent in May 2005.

The Self-Rated Poor is at 52 percent in the National Capital Region, 44 percent in the Balance of Luzon, and 55 percent in the Visayas, all of which are lower than last May. Self-Rated Poverty stayed at 52 percent in Mindanao.
The median self-rated poverty threshold, or the median monthly budget in peso-terms that poor households say they need to escape poverty, stayed at P7, 000 in the Balance of Luzon, P6, 000 in the Visayas, and P5, 000 in Mindanao. In Metro Manila, it went up to P12, 000 in August 2005, from P10, 000 in May.
Such money-value thresholds were already reached as early as 5 years ago, even though the cost of living rose greatly every year. The failure of the thresholds to increase despite so much inflation is a sign that the poor are actually lowering their real living standards.
The drop could be due to the stepped up implementation of the Kapit Bisig Laban Sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS, a community-based poverty reduction project which targets depressed and poor areas and now covers some 42 provinces and 1000 barangays.

The eight (8) percent decline in poverty is consistent with 4.8 percent growth in the second quarter gross domestic product recorded. This is also supported by unemployment figures of 7.7 percent in July down from 8.3 percent figures in April of this year.

The figure also finds support in Tourism data that show that 1.5 million tourists visited the country in the first seven months of 2005 compared to the 1.3 million tourists for the same period last year. Likewise, a 47 percent growth in foreign direct investment has been noted due to investment promotions and the lowering of business costs. $2 billion dollar investments have also been recorded in the stock market for 2005. To top it all, the country experienced a three-month budget surplus.

Government’s plan to develop two million hectares of land for agribusiness has so far created 130,000 jobs with hectarage developed in areas like SOCSARGEN, ARMM and the Ilocos Region.

Jobs generation program through micro finance services has also benefited about 2.1
million households and was also made possible through micro, small and medium enterprises. (PIA6) mailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com

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