MANILA, 3 June — A family of six now needs P505.17 (about $10) per day to meet their food and non-food requirements in the capital city of Manila.
The hike in the minimum wage has definitely not kept pace with the of the cost of living standards, an independent research body said yesterday. IBON Facts and Figures said this year’s living requirements in Metro Manila are substantially higher than the P467.45 estimate reported for 2000.
IBON also urged the Arroyo administration to default on the P130-billion debt interest payments slated for this year, to trim the budget shortfall projected at P145 billion by yearend.
IBON said the huge budget gap is one of the biggest threats to economic recovery.
Debt interest payments corner a huge chunk of the national budget.
As in last year’s budget, the amount allotted for debt interest payments account for 20 percent of this year’s national budget.
“By continuing to pay foreign debt interest at P130 billion, the government will be shelling out an amount to foreign creditors that is three times bigger than the combined allotment for education, health and agriculture this year,” said Ibon research director Antonio Tujan.
“If the Mexican government was able to do it in the late 1990s when they experienced a financial crash, then maybe the pragmatic economist in Mrs. Arroyo can also stand up to our creditors and do the same,” argued Tujan.
The P130 billion still does not include principal debt amortization, which has been taken out of the annual budget deliberations since 1995.
The think tank’s figures show a steady rise in living requirements in the national capital region, from P387.92 in 1997, P424.05 in 1998, and P452.05 in 1999.
In areas outside Metro Manila, daily cost of living as of April 2001 is pegged at P383.74 for agricultural areas and P403.74 for non-agricultural areas.
Figures for agricultural areas in the last four years are: P295.22 in 1997, P320.99 in 1998, P348.20 in 1999 and P361.44 in 2000. For non-agriculture areas: P310.61 in 1997, P337.72 in 1998, P366.34 in 1999 and P380.28 in 2000. The national average for this year is P419.70, up from P393.17 last year.
The National Statistics Office declared this year an 11.4-percent unemployment rate and 16.9-percent underemployment level. In its poverty indicators report for 1999, the NSO said there were 14.7 million families in the country, with the average family earning a six-month income of P60,788 at current prices.
While income levels were four percent higher than the P58,442 recorded in the same period in 1998, the NSO stressed that, “in real prices, average income declined by two percent.
