Manila Times/Manila


The third-quarter survey of the Social Weather Station (SWS) showed that 10.8mn Filipino households rated themselves as poor.
The SWS said the respondents saw their situation as “generally unchanged” from their June level.
Self-rated poverty was not significantly different from the previous quarter, or from the four-quarter average of 2012 either,” the SWS said. The survey was first published in
BusinessWorld yesterday.“But self-rated food poverty was lowest of (the) past four quarters, and significantly less than the average of 2012,” it added.
The survey revealed that self-rated poverty went up slightly to 50% from 49% (10.4mn households) in June, with fewer families rating themselves as food poor. Self-rated food poverty fell to 37% (7.9mn households) from 40% (8.5mn households) in June. In 2012, self-rated poverty averaged 52%, while food poor averaged 41%.
SWS made the survey from September 20-30 using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult Filipinos nationwide.
The pollster added that families continued to tighten their belts, with self-rated poverty thresholds still “sluggish” despite higher inflation.
Citing its median thresholds, the survey said that “the monthly budget that would satisfy the poorer half of the poor households,” increased to P15,000 in Metro Manila, P10,000 in Balance Luzon and the Visayas and P9,500 in Mindanao.