If you’ve found yourself working twice as hard to make ends meet, you’re not the only one.
Over the last seven years, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said on Tuesday that it has become harder to escape poverty. NSCB Secretary-General Jose Ramon Albert disclosed that on average, 28 in every 100 Filipinos were poor or experienced being poor over the last six years.
According to Interaksyon.com, a family of five needs P5,458 every month to meet basic needs. The same family requires P7,821 to stay above the poverty line. The results of the survey were disappointing for socioeconomic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan. He is optimistic though that the figures would improve by the second half of the year. He stressed that the government is targeting to reduce poverty incidence to 16 percent by 2016. The latest survey pegs it at 22.3 percent.
