Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto has underscored that the Philippines’ lower and better-than-expected poverty incidence in 2023 is very encouraging and has committed to ramp up government’s initiatives in sustaining rapid economic growth and increasing investments in human capital development to lift more Filipinos out of poverty.
“These figures, which are even lower than our 2023 targets, demonstrate that our strategies are working and that we are on track to achieve a single-digit poverty incidence of 9% by the end of the President’s term in 2028. In fact, if we continue to ramp up investments and create more jobs, we might reach this goal even sooner,” he stated.
Poverty incidence is the proportion of individuals or families with incomes that are not enough to buy their minimum basic food and non-food needs as estimated by the poverty threshold.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)’s Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) showed that the poverty incidence among Filipino individuals significantly dropped to 15.5% in 2023 from 18.1% in 2021, and the pre-pandemic rate of 16.7% in 2018.
This means that 2.45 million Filipinos were lifted out of poverty from 2021 to 2023.
The figure is lower than the government’s development target for poverty incidence in 2023, which was set between 16.0% and 16.4%.
Meanwhile, poverty incidence among families also significantly dropped to 10.9% in 2023 from 13.2% in 2021, liberating around 500,000 families from poverty. This is also lower than the pre-pandemic rate of 12.1% in 2018.
The country’s average per capita income rose by 17.9% between 2021 and 2023, significantly surpassing its 3.8% increase observed from 2018 to 2021.
Meanwhile, the average per capita incomes of the first, second, and third decile classes also recorded notable growths at 25.3%, 22.9%, and 22.2%, respectively.
As food security remains a top priority of the government, Secretary Recto said the government will continue to intensify its efforts in managing inflation to shield Filipinos from high food prices and increasing investments in the agriculture sector to improve productivity in the long-term period.
He also stressed that the DOF has been improving tax administration and collection efficiency through digitalization, plugging of tax leaks, and strategically tapping non-revenue resources to achieve its revenue targets and sustainably fund the Filipinos growing needs.
The Finance Chief said every peso collected is being stretched by the DOF to finance the nation’s HEARTS (Health, Education, Agriculture, Roads and Infrastructure, Technology, and Security and Social Protection).
Among the HEARTS, education will continue to receive the highest budget allocation to strengthen the country’s human capital.
Secretary Recto also highlighted the need to equally prioritize social protection programs to ensure that Filipinos are thriving and healthy. These programs include cash assistance to the poor and vulnerable, as well as livelihood, housing, and medical support.
For its part, the DOF is actively streamlining regulations and eliminating barriers to ease of doing business, such as the passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) to attract more investments in high-impact sectors.
The massive roll-out of infrastructure projects will also proceed in full steam to boost the country’s competitiveness through increased productivity and the creation of more employment opportunities for Filipinos.
