President Marcos’ chief economic manager stated that achieving single-digit poverty incidence among Filipinos may happen sooner than expected.

Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said last year's poverty rate, which better the target, was "very encouraging," given that it is also lower than the pre-pandemic rate.

The Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) revealed that the poverty rate among Filipino individuals decreased to 15.5 percent in 2023 from 18.1 percent in 2021, as well as the pre-pandemic level of 16.7 percent in 2018.

This indicates that 2.45 million Filipinos were brought above the poverty line from 2021 to 2023.

Recto noted that the percentage is better than the government's goal for poverty incidence in 2023, which ranged from 16 percent to 16.4 percent.

“These figures demonstrate that our strategies are working and that we are on track to achieve a single-digit poverty incidence of nine percent by the end of the President’s term in 2028,” Recto said in a statement.

“In fact, if we continue to ramp up investments and create more jobs, we might reach this goal even sooner,” he added.

Poverty incidence refers to the percentage of individuals or families whose incomes are insufficient to purchase their basic food and non-food needs, as determined by the poverty threshold.

Meanwhile, the percentage of families living in poverty decreased to 10.9 percent in 2023 from 13.2 percent in 2021, resulting in approximately 500,000 families being lifted out of poverty. This rate is also lower than the pre-pandemic level of 12.1 percent in 2018.

The average income per person in the country also increased by 17.9 percent between 2021 and 2023, a significant improvement over the 3.8 percent growth seen from 2018 to 2021.

Moreover, the average per capita incomes of the first, second, and third decile groups posted substantial increases of 25.3 percent, 22.9 percent, and 22.2 percent, respectively.

As food security remains a top priority of the government, Recto said the government will continue to intensify its efforts in managing inflation to shield Filipinos from high food prices.

He added that the government will increase investments in the agriculture sector to improve productivity in the long-term period.

He also stressed that the DOF has been improving tax administration and collection efficiency through digitalization, plugging of tax leaks, and strategically tapping non-revenue resources to achieve its revenue targets and sustainably fund the Filipinos growing needs.

The finance chief said the DOF is stretching every peso collected to finance the nation’s HEARTS (Health, Education, Agriculture, Roads and Infrastructure, Technology, and Security and Social Protection).

Among the HEARTS, education will continue to receive the highest budget allocation to strengthen the country’s human capital.

Recto also highlighted the need to equally prioritize social protection programs to ensure that Filipinos are thriving and healthy. These programs include cash assistance to the poor and vulnerable, as well as livelihood, housing, and medical support.

For its part, the DOF is actively streamlining regulations and eliminating barriers to ease of doing business, such as the passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) to attract more investments in high-impact sectors.

The massive roll-out of infrastructure projects will also proceed in full steam to boost the country’s competitiveness through increased productivity and the creation of more employment opportunities for Filipinos.