Manila, July 22 : The Philippines' poverty rate declined to 15.5 per cent in 2023 from 18.1 per cent in 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Monday.

Citing preliminary data, PSA head Dennis Mapa said the number of poor Filipinos in 2023 was about 17.54 million, down from 19.99 million in 2021, Xinhua news agency reported.

The subsistence incidence, or share of the total population with per capita income lower than the per capita food threshold, decreased to 4.3 per cent in 2023 from 5.9 per cent in 2021.

The estimated number of Filipinos whose income was insufficient to buy basic food was 4.84 million, lower than the 6.55 million in 2021.

"The observed decline in poverty incidence from 2021 can be explained by the changes in the poverty threshold and income data from 2021 to 2023," Mapa said.

/IANS