Manolo B. Jara (The Gulf Today)
MANILA: A World Bank (WB) senior economist on Tuesday reported that the country’s economic growth has become more “inclusive,” meaning that at least 1.8 million Filipinos have been lifted out of their poverty in the past three years.
“The rapidly growing domestic economy has yielded substantial gains in employment and poverty reduction.
This means growth became more inclusive,” Brigit Hansl, the WB lead economist, told reporters at the launching of the Philippine Economic Updates April 2017 in Metro Manila.
Hansl, citing a report from the Philippines Statistics Authority, noted a significant drop in the poverty incidence among Filipinos from 25.2 per cent 2012 to just 21.6 in 2015.
This meant that 1.8 million poor Filipinos have benefitted significantly in the last three years and helped improve their lives from the country’s economic growth which has become more inclusive, according to Hansl.
The same is true, Hansl pointed out, in the employment sector after showing improvements after it emerged as one of the country’s major problems.
The economic growth, Hansl said, has reduced the number of unemployed Filipinos to a “historic” low of 4.7 per cent as 1.4 million jobs have been created.
Nevertheless, Hansl warned that the underemployment problem of 18 per cent has also emerged as another major problem because it has “remained unchanged over the last 10 years.”