The Philippines' poverty rate has risen for the first time since the Asian financial -crisis, according to a new government report that deals a blow to -Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's plans to halve the ranks of the country's poor.

Barring a brief rise in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian crisis, the Philippines' poverty rate has moved steadily downwards since the 1986 fall of Ferdinand Marcos, shortly after which it stood at almost 50 per cent.

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