MANILA, Philippines — More than half of Filipinos are optimistic that the state of the Philippine economy will improve in the next 12 months, the latest survey of the Social Weather Station (SWS) on Wednesday showed.
The survey was conducted among 1,440 adult respondents from December 12 to 16, 2021, with a total of 360 each in Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
Results showed that 51 percent of Filipinos said they believe the Philippine economy will improve in the next 12 months (Economic Optimists) while only seven percent said it would be worse (Economic Pessimists), and 30 percent said it would remain the same (Neutral).
This resulted in a Net Economic Optimism score (% Economic Optimists minus % Economic Pessimists) of +44, classified by SWS as “excellent.”
“The December 2021 Net Economic Optimism was a continuing recovery from the mediocre -9 in July 2020, mediocre -5 in September 2020, and high +24 in November 2020,” said SWS.
“This is the highest since the excellent +44 in September 2016,” it added.
Quality of life
Meanwhile, 45 percent of adult Filipinos said their quality-of-life will improve (Personal Optimists), 42 percent said it will stay the same (No Change), and 3 percent said it will worsen in the next 12 months (Personal Pessimists).
SWS said Net Economic Optimism is higher among Personal Optimists at +69, than among those who said “No Change” at +26, and among Personal Pessimists at -22.
The latest SWS survey had sampling error margins of ±2.6 percent for national percentages and ±5.2 percent for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao, the pollster said.
For the survey, respondents were asked about economic optimism or pessimism. The exact question was:
“Sa darating na 12 buwan, ano sa palagay ninyo ang mangyayari sa ekonomiya ng Pilipinas? Masasabi ba ninyo na ito ay BUBUTI, KAPAREHO LANG, o SASAMA?”
(Over the next 12 months, what do you think will happen to the economy of the Philippines? Would you say it WILL BE BETTER, SAME, or WILL BE WORSE)
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