The World Bank’s projection that the poverty rate will dip below 20 percent by 2020 is consistent with the government’s goal to reduce poverty by the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term.
Malacañang on Thursday hailed the World Bank’s Macro Poverty Outlook for East Asia and the Pacific as “good news” that should encourage civil servants to “double their efforts.”
“The latest World Bank Macro Poverty Outlook for East Asia and the Pacific report is good news to us for it recognizes the strength and resiliency of our domestic economy,” said presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo.
In a statement, Panelo said the report—which projected that the poverty rate will fall to below 20 percent by 2020—is “proof that genuine and palpable change has indeed come.”
A World Bank report which predicted that the poverty rate will fall to 20.8 percent in 2019, 19.8 percent in 2020 and 18.7 percent in 2021, or in the last full year of the Duterte administration.