By Brian Jules Campued
At least 40% of Filipinos expect the Philippine economy to pick up in the next 12 months while a higher number of 44% say the economy will stay the same, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results on Wednesday.
In the Fourth Quarter 2023 Social Weather Survey conducted from Dec. 8-11, 2023, some 10% believe it will worsen while 5% did not give an answer.
The resulting net optimism score remains “very high” at +30. This figure, however, is lower than the third quarter’s net economic optimism score of +35.
“It has been at very high levels since March 2023, following a decline from the excellent levels from December 2021 to December 2022,” SWS said.
The polling firm noted a significant drop in the net optimism score in Balance Luzon at +30 from the “excellent” +46 and to +32 from +41 in Mindanao.
On the other hand, the grade rose sharply to +36 from “fair” +16 in Metro Manila and to “high” +25 from +15 in Visayas.
Net economic optimism was also highest among those who finished tertiary education or took postgraduate studies, followed by those who entered or finished junior and senior high school as well as vocational school, those who had or completed elementary education, and lastly, lowest for those who did not have formal education.
The SWS added that the net economic optimism was higher for adults who belong to families who did not consider themselves poor, followed by those whose families considered themselves poor, and those whose families considered themselves to be borderline poor.
A recent survey also showed that the number of adult Filipinos believing their lives will improve in the next 12 months dipped to 44% in December, down from 48% in September.
According to SWS, net economic optimism was higher among “personal optimists” (+56) than those who said their personal lives would not change (+15), while it was “extremely low” among personal pessimists (-37).
The survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide. It had sampling error margins of ±2.8% for national percentages and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. – avds
