AMID concerns that the country’s poverty measure no longer reflects current economic realities, the government is nearing completion of its review of the methodology used to determine who is considered poor.
Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DepDev) Arsenio M. Balisacan on Tuesday said the review of the poverty metric is ‘almost’ complete, but stressed that the current methodology should remain in place for now to ensure consistency in measuring the Marcos administration’s progress toward its single-digit poverty target under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028.
Last week, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that poverty incidence fell to a record-low 9.7 percent in 2025, equivalent to 11.08 million Filipinos. This was down sharply from 15.5 percent in 2023 and 18.1 percent in 2021.
The decline, however, has also renewed questions over whether the country’s poverty measure remains appropriate for current living standards and economic conditions. ‘Part of the controversy or the claim is that that metric is now low, and we agree that that deserves a review,’ Balisacan said.
Under the latest PSA data, an individual is considered poor if their monthly income falls below the per capita poverty threshold of P2,927, or P35,121 annually. For a family of five, the poverty threshold is P14,634 per month.
The latest thresholds were 5.5 percent higher than the P2,775 monthly per capita threshold and the P13,873 monthly threshold for a family of five in 2023.
Balisacan, however, said the current metric should be retained for the remainder of the administration’s term so its poverty-reduction gains can be measured against the same baseline.
He explained that the government needs to use a ‘consistent ruler’ to determine whether its programs, policies, and strategies are delivering the intended results.
‘I think that it’s proper that we use the same metric throughout, and then maybe in the next government, they can set their own metric standard to measure their progress. In the meantime, we are preparing for an update of the thresholds,’ Balisacan said.
The same principle applies to calls for the Philippines to adopt a higher poverty threshold following its transition to upper-middle-income country status, an issue earlier reported by this newspaper. Balisacan acknowledged that the country’s current poverty threshold is ‘slightly below’ what would be expected given its current per-capita income or gross national income per capita, and said an adjustment is warranted.
‘Maybe in the next administration, that is recommended. I think that’s usually the practice in many countries,’ he said.
The World Bank’s international poverty lines are currently set at $4.20 per person per day for lower-middle-income economies and $8.30 for upper-middle-income economies, both in 2021 purchasing power parity terms.
At around P97 per person per day, the Philippines’s national poverty threshold is closer to the lower-middle-income benchmark.