CAN POVERTY PERSIST IN GROWING ECONOMY?

So resistant has Philippine poverty been to the modernizing effects of growth that—during these last 50 years—our country has become the poorest and most unequal among comparable East Asian economies.

From 1994 until 1997, and then again from 2002 until 2010, GDP growth has been continuous. In the latter year, growth reached 7.3 percent—a peak the economy hadn’t achieved in 30 years. The 2012 figure, too, was respectable (6.5 percent), and 2013 is expected to exceed 7 percent.