• Philippine poverty incidence among families slightly decreased to 16.4% in 1H 2023 from 18% in same period in 2021, according to statistics agency.
• Number of poor families fell to 4.5m in 1H 2023 vs 4.7m a year ago
• Economic Planning chief Arsenio Balisacan says at online briefing that he was expecting the poverty data to increase given price challenges earlier this year
• Balisacan says targeted cash aid helped mitigate inflation impact on poor, but high inflation partially offset income growth
  ** Reducing poverty would’ve been faster if inflation was more moderate, he says
• Balisacan also says the “possibilities are now higher” that the government will achieve its target of lowering poverty rate to single digit by the end of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s six-year term in 2028