THE country’s poverty incidence declined further in 2025, according to preliminary estimates from the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DepDev).
Data presented by DepDev during the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) briefing on Monday showed the poverty rate fell to 9.7 percent in 2025 from 15.5 percent in 2023.
If finalized, the 2025 figure would mean the Marcos administration reached its goal of bringing poverty incidence below 10 percent ahead of its 2028 target.
‘Based on the country’s official poverty lines and the preliminary estimates for 2025, poverty incidence, or the proportion of the population being poor among Filipinos, fell from 18.1 percent in 2021 to 9.7 percent in 2025,’ Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said in his presentation.
‘This means that 8.8 million Filipinos were lifted out of poverty over this period,’ he added.
Based on initial estimates presented by DepDev, the 9.7-percent poverty rate was based on a national poverty threshold of P14,634 per month for a family of five, higher than the P13,873 threshold in 2023.
The preliminary threshold for the National Capital Region was higher at P16,842 per month, while the food poverty threshold was estimated at P554 per day for a family of five.
Balisacan said the poverty line is intended primarily to track changes in poverty over time as the threshold is adjusted for inflation.
He also stressed that the threshold should not be interpreted as the amount required for a decent standard of living.
‘It’s not so much to say that a threshold like P554 is enough to meet a decent living,’ he said.
DepDev said the decline in poverty reflected the recovery in incomes and employment as well as the continued implementation of social protection programs.
Balisacan cautioned, however, that the gains remain vulnerable to elevated inflation, particularly among poor and low-income households, which spend a larger share of their budgets on food.
Based on PSA data, food accounts for 51.38 percent of the inflation basket of the bottom 30 percent of income households. Rice alone carries a weight of 17.8 percent in their basket, nearly double its 8.87 percent share in the basket for all income households.
Food inflation was recorded at 5.3 percent in July, reversing the 0.5 percent deflation recorded in the same month last year. Rice inflation, meanwhile, stood at 19.3 percent, the highest since July 2024.
‘If inflation remains elevated, it could slow or even reverse our recent gains in poverty reduction,’ Balisacan said.
Preliminary results of the 2025 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), which will serve as the basis for the final poverty incidence estimates, are expected to be released later this month.