Filipino families of five living in NCR needed PhP 8,254 monthly income
in 2006 to stay out of poverty
(PR-200706-SS1-03, Posted 21 June 2007)

Pursuant to the commitment towards efficient delivery of products, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) released the revised 2006 food and poverty thresholds, using the regional menus developed by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute and price data collected by the National Statistics Office (NSO) and Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS). In line with the thrust of providing relevant, timely and accurate poverty statistics, the preliminary 2006 food and poverty thresholds were earlier released by the NSCB on 2 March 2007 using a model-based estimation methodology for the estimation of the thresholds approved by the NSCB Executive Board on 14 February 2007. This methodology allowed for the computation of advance estimates of food and poverty thresholds even before price data for the reference year are made available by the NSO and BAS.

Based on the prevailing prices in NCR for 2006, the poverty threshold posted a 5.4 percent increase from the figure posted in 2005. In other words, Filipino families living in NCR comprising of five members should have earned a monthly income of PhP 8,254 to be able to sustain their families’ minimum basic food and non-food needs. Of the PhP 8,254 monthly income, PhP 4,920 (60 percent of the poverty threshold) should have been allocated for basic food needs and PhP 3,334 (40 percent of the poverty threshold) to basic non-food needs of the family. On the other hand, at the national level, a family of five needed PhP 204 daily to buy their minimum basic food and non-food needs.

Table 1. Monthly and Daily Poverty and Food threshold for a Family of Five, 2005-2006

		Monthly		Daily
		2005	2006	2005	2006
PHILIPPINES	Poverty Threshold	5,853	6,211	193	204
	Food Threshold	3,904	4,151	128	137
Urban	Poverty Threshold	6,680	7,098	220	233
	Food Threshold	4,280	4,558	141	150
Rural	Poverty Threshold	5,540	5,885	182	194
	Food Threshold	3,816	4,057	126	133
NCR	Poverty Threshold	7,829	8,254	258	272
	Food Threshold	4,667	4,920	154	162