More Filipinos pessimistic on economy, says survey Philippine Daily Inquirer
June 11, 2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Amid soaring prices of food and oil, more Filipinos feel pessimistic about how the economy will fare over the rest of the year and into the next, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
The First Quarter 2008 Social Weather Survey found that 45 percent of Filipino adults are pessimistic about the economy over the next 12 months, up from 37 percent in December.
More Filipinos (50 percent) also said that their personal quality of life had worsened compared to a year ago, up from 45 percent in December.
The survey also found that only 17 percent are optimistic about the economy, up from 15 percent.
These figures brought the net economic optimism to minus 29, down from minus 20 in December.
The survey, which was conducted from March 28 to March 31, asked the question: “In the coming 12 months, what do you think will happen to the Philippine economy?”
Better or worse?
The respondents were then asked to answer whether they think it would be better, would stay the same, or would be worse.
Those who answered that the economy would be better were called “optimists” while those who answered it would be worse were called “pessimists.” Net optimism is the difference between the percentage of optimists and pessimists, correctly rounded.
“Optimism about the future [of the economy] is based on a question about the economy in general and not about oneself in particular. It is normal to be more optimistic about one’s own quality of life than about the economy as a whole,” the SWS said in a statement released Tuesday.
The same survey also found that about a third, or 29 percent, of Filipinos were optimistic about improving their personal quality of life over the next 12 months, while 23 percent were pessimistic, feeling that it would get worse.
This brought net personal optimism, the difference of personal optimists over pessimists, to a “merely neutral” 6.
Worsened
Comparing their personal quality of life now from a year ago, half of Filipinos surveyed said their lives had worsened. However, the survey also found 18 percent saying their lives had improved, barely changed from 19 percent in December.
This brought the gap between the gainers (those whose lives improved from last year) and losers (those whose lives worsened) at minus 31 points.
“Since the start of 2006, the gainers-losers gap has been below 20 points in five out of 11 SWS survey rounds. The latest gainers-losers gap of minus 31, however, is a fall back to the levels of 2001 to 2005, when the gap was never less than 21 points, and reached as high as 43,” the SWS said.
Pessimism about the economy worsened in all areas, the survey found. Net economic optimism fell in the Visayas to minus 37 in March from minus 17 in December, while it also fell in Metro Manila (from minus 31 to minus 35), in the rest of Luzon (from minus 24 to minus 28), as well as in Mindanao (from minus 8 to minus 21).
Across socioeconomic classes, pessimism worsened among class D (from minus 20 to minus 33) and E (from minus 17 to minus 24). Among members of classes ABC, it became slightly less negative from minus 27 to minus 20.
The survey was conducted from March 28 to March 31 using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It had a margin of error of plus-minus three percentage points. Kate Pedroso, Inquirer Research
