MANILA - The country’s growing population has set back the decades-old struggle to lift more people from poverty, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said Tuesday.

Citing his own computations, Pernia said the poverty rate could have been reduced by an additional 7 to 8 percentage points had 40 percent of women been given the means to have three children instead of six.

Since 1990, Pernia said the Philippines was able to shave just seven percent of the poverty incidence, which stood at 26.3 percent in the first semester of 2015 according to government data.

“I think the reason for that, the emphasis has always been on economic growth, job creation, we have not paid attention to the supply side of labor, population side,” Pernia told a business forum.

“We feel there is room for reducing poverty,” he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has identified the implementation of a law granting free contraceptives to the poor as one of his ten priorities.

Pernia said the government set an economic growth target of 6.5 to 7.5 percent this year and 7 to 8 percent next year.

Growth could surpass eight percent, Pernia said, if there will be enough foreign direct investments and if Duterte succeeds in spreading growth to provinces outside Manila.