Half of Philippines considers itself poor

ABOUT half of the Philippine population considers themselves poor despite robust economic growth, a survey showed yesterday.

The independent study by the Social Weather Stations showed that at least 9.4 million families, about 50 per cent, considered themselves to be poor, up from 43 per cent or 8.1 million in March, a spokesman of the group said.

"We asked them to choose between two cards: poor or not poor. We did not ask them why they feel poor," said Leo Larosa, a researcher at polling firm said.

This came despite government figures showing that the Philippines recorded a 7.9 per cent economic growth rate in the first half of 2010, its best half-year growth record in more than 20 years.

The figures were significantly higher than the government's latest poverty study in 2006 showing that 32.9 per cent of the population or 27.6 million Filipinos were considered poor. The Social Weather Stations survey was conducted in June and questioned 1,200 people nationwide. It had a three percent margin of error. AFP