Self-assessed poverty falls to a new record: SWS

MANILA – The number of Filipinos who consider themselves poor has fallen to a new record (38%) in the first quarter of 2019, a survey of social weather stations (SWS) said on Tuesday.

This figure, which corresponds to some 9.5 million families, is 12 percentage points lower than the 50% recorded in December 2018 and 4 points at the previous record level of 42% recorded in September 2016 and March 2018.

SWS attributed this decline to declines in all regions: 16 points at Balance Luzon (35%), 12 points at Mindanao (37%), 6 points at Visayas (55%) and 2 points in Metro Manila ( 28%).

Of the 38% of self-assessed poor families, 26% said they were "always poor" while the remaining 12% fell into poverty.

Of the 62% who considered themselves non-poor, a record 15% said they were pulled out of poverty.

The survey also revealed a record of 27%, or 6.8 million families, who consider themselves "poor in food".

The rating is down 7 points from the previous quarter by 34% and 2 points from the previous record of 29% recorded in March 2018.

He lost 11 points to Mindanao (27%), 7 points to Balance Luzon (24%), 3 points to Metro Manila (19%) and 2 points to Visayas (42%).

Respondents nationwide said they needed a monthly budget of 10,000 pesos to not be considered poor.

The first quarter survey ran from March 28 to 31, 2019. It has a margin of error of ± 2.6% for national data.