TACLOBAN CITY — The National Economic and Development Authority regional office here on Friday revealed that poverty incidence in Eastern Visayas has slightly dropped although it is still below the reduction target.

In its 2021 full report, the NEDA said that from 30.7 percent in 2018, the poverty rate went down to 28.9 percent in 2021 or a 1.8 percent reduction
— which means that 31,200 more people in Eastern Visayas have been lifted out of poverty during a three-year period.

"With the 28.9 percent poverty incidence among the population, we actually missed our target of 23.7 percent for the same year as indicated in our Eastern Visayas Regional Development Plan. This is understandable because of the economic slump we suffered from due to the Covid-19 pandemic," said NEDA regional director Meylene Rosales.

She added that in the last seven years, the region's poverty ranking among the 17 regions in the country has also been improving, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The region was the second poorest in 2015 and landed in third spot in 2018. The region went down two more notches on the poverty ladder and is now ranked fifth.

"We must sustain this poverty reduction by increasing income opportunities for every family in Eastern Visayas — even when we are still grappling with this pandemic. The economy is gradually recovering after it has reopened. This is evidenced by the 6 percent growth in the Gross Regional Domestic Product in 2021 from 2020, the first year of the pandemic," Rosales said.

Meanwhile, subsistence among the population in the region in 2021 was pegged at 10.4 percent, or about 10 in every 100 individuals in the region have income below the food threshold or the amount needed to buy their basic food needs.

A family of five in the region needed at least P7,819 monthly to meet the family's basic food needs, which satisfies the nutritional requirements for "economically necessary and socially desirable physical activities."