Close to four million people in the Philippines became poor in the first half of the year due to pandemic-induced lockdown measures that dried up jobs and reduced domestic demand, government officials said on Friday.

Poverty incidence in the Philippines rose to 23.7 percent in the first half of the year from 21.1 percent in the same period in 2018, economic officials said, which translated to 3.9 million more Filipinos living in poverty. The statistics agency releases poverty statistics every three years.