Growth and profits amid poverty and inequality
Economic growth and corporate profits
- Growth in gross domestic product (GDP) during the last nine years of the Arroyo administration (2001-09) averaged 4.5% annually compared to 3.9% under Aquino (1986-91), 3.8% under Ramos (1992-97) and 2.4% under Estrada (1998-2000).
- Net income of Top 1000 corporations in the Philippines rose from P116.4 billion in 2001 to average P416.7 billion annually in the period 2002-08 (Business World)
Poverty and inequality
- Number of poor families increased 530,642 since 2000 to 4.7 million poor families in 2006. (NSCB, using low official poverty lines)
- Number of poor Filipinos increased 2.1 million since 2000 to 27.6 million in 2006. (NSCB, using low official poverty lines)
- P41 – Official poverty line or average daily income required for a person to stay out of poverty, according to which the government counts just 32.9% of the population as “poor”
- P41 – buys one kilo of rice (P36) and an egg (P5)
- IBON self-rated poverty 69% (January 2010), implying 64.5 million poor Filipinos
In 2006, the net worth of just the 20 richest Filipinos – including close Arroyo allies Lucio Tan, Enrique Razon, Jr., Eduardo Cojuangco, Enrique Aboitiz and others – was P801 billion (US$15.6 billion), which was equivalent to the combined income for the year of the poorest 10.4 million Filipino families. (Forbes Asia, NSCB)
