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MANILA: A Filipino family of five members needs an
income of P10,000 ($227) a month to survive in Metro Manila due to
soaring prices of fuel and other commodities, a revised figure
released by the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) showed
Saturday.
This income threshold covers only
basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, and transportation and
does not include spending for recreation, said the NSCB, adding that
families whose incomes fall short of the threshold are considered
poor.
The latest NSCB poverty line,
drawn according to inflation triggered by the latest increases in
fuel prices, means that the minimum monthly income above poverty
line has been raised by 16.7 percent from P8,569 in 2006.
The NSCB said the new figure is
provisional and an official one will be published next year, as
surveys for poverty statistics are conducted once every three years
with the last official one produced in 2006.
The NSCB earlier reported that
26.9 percent of Filipino families were poor in 2006.
The Philippine government has set
a target of reducing the figure of poor families to 17 percent when
President Gloria Arroyo’s term ends in May 2010.
Inflation in the country is
expected to hit near 10 percent in May due to soaring fuel and food
prices, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Friday.
 --Xinhua
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