Poverty unchanged despite economic growth

ECONOMIC GROWTH has failed to make a dent on poverty, data released by the government yesterday indicated, with the rate — equivalent to a little under three out of 10 Filipinos — unchanged in the last six years.

Results of the 2012 First Semester Poverty Statistics put the proportion of poor Filipinos at 27.9%. “Comparing this with the 2006 and 2009 first semester figures estimated at 28.8% and 28.6%, respectively, poverty remained unchanged as the computed differences were not statistically significant,” the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said in a statement.

The NSCB report coincided with the release of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing a slight improvement in self-rated poverty as of March this year from December 2012. At 52%, however, the figure was significantly higher than the latest official figure.

Poverty among Filipino families, the NSCB said, was at 22.3% as of the first semester of 2012, also statistically insignificant from the 23.4% recorded in the first half of 2006 and the 22.9% three years later.

The report made use of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey conducted by the National Statistics Office in July 2012.

Analysts noted that strong economic growth had failed to lift people out of poverty, while the government said it expected future surveys to record improvements given initiatives to make growth inclusive.

The poll results, said University of the Philippines (UP) economist Benjamin E. Diokno, “suggests that the strong economic growth in 2010 and 2012 were not enough to extricate a lot of people from the poverty trap.”

Gross domestic product growth surged by 7.6% in 2010, an election year, before slowing to 3.9% in the following year amid a global dowturn. Growth sped up to 6.6% in 2012, beating the government’s 5-6% target.

The Aquino administration, said Mr. Diokno, “should focus on manufacturing and agricultural modernization. The necessary conditions are affordable, sufficient and reliable power supply and a competitive peso.”

Fellow UP economist Solita Collas-Monsod agreed, saying: “The government should intervene in the uplifting of small and micro industries by giving them access to credit.”

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan, in a statement, noted slow-moving agriculture and a fishery sector contraction in the first half of 2012. Farming issues, he added, have led to persistent underemployment that the government is trying to address.

“If the problem of visible underemployment in agriculture is addressed, then incomes of farmers would increase, poverty incidence would decrease and we would not be compromising food security in the country,” he claimed.

Higher government and private sector spending, a jobs plan, the mapping of areas that are often hit hard by disasters and a peace deal with Moro rebels in Mindanao should ensure that “the next rounds of poverty statistics will give much better results…,” Mr. Balisacan added.

Results of the poverty survey also showed that a family of five needed P5,458 a month to meet basic food needs. One out of 10 families was so poor they could not come up with the amount — a finding that was also unchanged from 2006 and 2009.

To meet basic food and non-food needs — clothing, housing, transportation, health and education, etc. — a family of five needed P7,821 a month. Only eight out of 10 families met the threshold.

By income group, the bottom 20% of families accounted for 6% of the total income in the country, while the upper 20% controlled nearly 50%.

Moreover, the total income of the top 20% was approximately eight times the total income of the bottom 20% — also unchanged from the first half of 2006 and 2009.

To lift Filipinos out of the poverty trap, the NSCB estimated that the government would have needed P79.7 billion in the first semester of 2012. It noted that the conditional cash transfer program only had a budget of P39.4 billion for the entire year.

Poverty incidence among families was highest in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at 46.9%, worsening from 43% in 2006 and 42% in 2009.

The regions with the lowest level of poverty incidence among families were Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon.
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