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Rising prices put 4 million Filipinos back into poverty

Soaring oil prices and the rising cost of living have driven nearly 4 million people in the Philippines back into poverty, officials said yesterday.

The number of Filipinos living on just US$1 a day rose from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006, a survey released by the economic planning ministry showed.

One in three Filipinos are now living in poverty despite modest economic gains in recent years.

The survey blamed rising oil prices, which have pushed up the cost of transport, which in turn has pushed up the cost of basic food items.

Another factor contributing to rising poverty levels were wages, which have barely moved in the three-year period under review.

"The failure to meet the most basic needs can be due to increasing prices and/or insufficient rise in personal income," Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos told a news conference.

He said that in the three years to 2006, prices had risen by 22 percent.

"External factors such as higher oil prices played a role in this scenario," he said. "The government's commitment to solve the fiscal deficit also put upward initial pressure on inflation."

Dolores Castillo, head of the government's National Anti-Poverty Commission, said the government remains confident it could fulfil the UN's Millennium Development Goals and trim poverty by a half to about 16 percent in 2010.

"However ambitious these targets may seem, they are achievable as long as we sustain our momentum toward higher economic growth and ensure equitable distribution of wealth," Castillo said.

The Philippines posted a 31-year-high economic growth of 7.3 percent last year, along with a 20-year-low inflation of 2.8 percent.

Inflation, however, has been rising steadily this year. Data released yesterday showed inflation at 5.4 percent last month, the highest since October 2006.
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