SWS: Half of Pinoys think they’re poor

Survey, done on Sept. 20-30, says 37 percent of 7.9 think they are food-poor

ABOUT half of Filipinos (10.8 million households) considered themselves poor in the third quarter of 2013, a new survey by Social Weather Stations showed.

The SWS, which conducted the survey Sept. 20 to 30, said this situation was “generally unchanged” from June.

In its survey results posted on its media partner BusinessWorld on Monday, the SWS said about 49 percent or 10.4 million households considered themselves poor in June.

However, it also found 37 percent of families or 7.9 million households consider themselves food-poor in the third quarter, down from 40 percent or 8.5 million households in June.

“Self-rated poverty was not significantly different from the previous quarter, or from the four-quarter average of 2012 either. But self-rated food poverty was lowest of [the] past four quarters, and significantly less than the average of 2012,” said the SWS, which interviewed 1,200 Filipinos nationwide.

The survey also showed Filipino families continued to tighten their belts, with self-rated poverty thresholds still “sluggish” despite higher inflation.

It said the median thresholds, or “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.

Median self-rated food poverty thresholds, or the “monthly food budgets that food-poor households need in home expenses in order not to consider themselves food-poor,” went up to P8,500 in Metro Manila and to P5,000 in the Visayas.

It stayed at P5,000 in balance Luzon and P4,000 in Mindanao. (Sunnex)