SWS: Fewer people hungry in Q4 2014
MANILA, Philippines–Fewer families experienced hunger during the last quarter of 2014, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.
The poll, conducted from November 27 to December 1 among 1,800 respondents, revealed slight improvements in moderate and severe hunger in the country.
Families who said they experienced hunger once or a few times in the last three months (moderate hunger) fell to 13.2 percent from 17.6 percent in September.
Meanwhile, those who experienced severe hunger (or those who said they were often or always hungry) in the last three months fell to 4.1 percent from 4.4 percent last quarter.
The improvement was seen across all areas with the incidence of hunger dropping to 14.7 percent (from 22 percent) in the National Capital Region, 18.3 percent (from 24.3 percent) in balance of Luzon, 16.4 percent (from 18.7 percent) in Visayas and 17.3 percent (from 20.3 percent) in Mindanao.
The occurrence of both moderate and severe hunger improved for all areas, except for the rest of Luzon where severe hunger increased to 5.3 percent from 5 percent in September.
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During a Palace briefing, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said they will have to study the results of the survey but are hoping that the government’s poverty alleviation programs are able to rich the poorest of the poor.
She pointed out that the government has various mechanisms to combat poverty, in addition to the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.
Valte said the government is hoping for continuous downward trend, considering that survey numbers tend to fluctuate.
“Hopefully, this will continue to go down. I think everyone is united in that particular hope that the numbers continue to go down,” she said.
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