INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Economic managers of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration have remained confident that they can bring the poverty rate down to 9 percent by the end of their tenure in 2028.
After a meeting with the President on Tuesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said that the administration’s aim of reducing the poverty ratio to a single digit is achievable by driving economic growth to a higher level through the creation of quality jobs for the people.
“But associated with that would be the generation of not just more jobs but higher quality jobs,” the National Economic and Development Authority chief pointed out during the meeting, according to a statement released by the Office of the Press Secretary.
“And those two, growths and jobs and paying attention to social protection to address shocks like typhoons and crises… to enable us to achieve faster reduction of poverty from where it is today to single digit, at nine percent actually,” he added.
In July, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno mentioned about the administration’s poverty reduction target. The following month, Balisacan assured the public that the government is on track to attaining that objective.
The World Bank’s forecast released in October indicated that poverty incidence in the Philippines may slightly dip to 17.1 percent this year, which is an improvement from 2021’s 18.1 percent rate.
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