‘Galunggong,’ rice prices rising faster than income

Prices of galunggong and rice rose faster than the income of poor Filipinos, hurting the quality of their life, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported Tuesday.

Romulo Virola, secretary-general of the board, said that from 2003 to 2006, prices of rice and galunggong went up faster than per capita income, and that poverty worsened.

During the period, prices of galunggong increased by 22.8 percent, higher than the per capita income increase of only 22.5 percent for families belonging to the first decile or the poorest 10 percent of the population.

Per capita income of second and third deciles posted 18.6 and 17.5 percent, respectively.

While, prices of tilapia and regular milled rice rose 19.8 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively.

From 2003 to 2006, Virola said the increase in income of these vulnerable groups was slower than the inflation rate, be it in terms of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food, or the CPI for all items.

CPI is a measurement of prices for a range of consumer products.

Fight vs. poverty

In 2006, the poverty incidence stood at 26.9 percent from 24.4 percent in 2003.

Since food comprises the biggest expenditure item of the poor and since rice and fish eat the biggest chunks of food expenditure, Virola explained that to reduce poverty “we must manage wages and prices so that the income of the poor will rise faster than prices of bigas [rice], galunggong at [and] tilapia . . .”

Galunggong is the fish commonly bought by the poor because of its relatively low price.

Virola said the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) consistently shows that the poor spend relative­ly more on rice and fish than on meat, while families in the upper 20 percent of the income distribution spend more on meat.

“It may be noted that the average share of vegetables to total food expenditure is relatively smal­ler compared to its share in the mean one-day per capita food consumption from the NNS [National Nutrition Survey],” he added.

Growth not enough

Technically, Virola explained that to be able to address poverty, it was not enough to have economic growth, higher income and improved income distribution.

“Income must increase faster than inflation,” he added.

Between 2006 and 2008, the official said minimum wage in Metro Manila grew annually by 4.99 percent and 4.47 percent for agriculture and non-agriculture workers, respectively.

But from 2008 to July 2009, the minimum wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) did not grow at all, Virola added.

During the same period, inflation all items in Metro Manila increased by 4.76 percent, and CPI food increased by 6.81 percent.

Inflation for the first half of 2009 is at 2.47 percent and 6.29 percent, for all items and for food, respectively.

“Government employees generally have income above the poverty line,” Virola said. “It seems unlikely that government employees will go below the poverty line when the 2009 poverty statistics come out, because the increase in their income outpaces inflation.”

“However, the same cannot be said of employees in the private sector, and unless they receive a wage adjustment before the end of 2009, many of them might join the ranks of the poor as of 2009,” he added.

Economic indicators

Virola also said in the first semester of the year, gross domestic product (GDP) grew only by 3.27 percent, gross national product (GNP) by 6.49 percent.

GDP is the total cost of all goods and services produced in the Philippines in a year, while GNP is the total market value of all goods and services produced by all Filipinos worldwide.

“Forecast for the whole year growth is also lower than in previous years,” Virola said.

From 2000 to 2006, he added that the Philippines experienced econo­mic growth that was pro-poor and to a certain extent, pro-middleclass.

“However, our poverty reduction program has not exactly been an outstanding success because inflation eroded whatever increase there was in the income of the vulnerable groups,” he said.  –Darwin G. Amojelar, Senior Reporter, Manila Times