MANILA, Philippines — Forty-six percent of Filipinos are optimistic that the Philippine economy will improve in the next 12 months, according to the latest survey of the Social Weather Station (SWS) on Sunday.
This survey was conducted among 1,440 adult respondents (360 each in Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao) using face to face interviews from April 19 to 27.
According to the SWS in its results, 46 percent of Filipinos said they believe the Philippine economy will improve in the next 12 months (Economic Optimists); while six percent said it would worsen (Economic Pessimists); and 28 percent said it would remain the same (Neutral).
The current percentage of “Economic Optimists” was lower than the results shown by SWS on April 6, which was at 51 percent.
READ: 51% of Filipinos believe PH economy will improve in 12 months — SWS
However, the latest survey results resulted in a Net Economic Optimism score (% Economic Optimists minus % Economic Pessimists) of +40, which is still classified by SWS as “excellent.”
“The latest Net Economic Optimism score is 4 points below the excellent +44 in December 2021. It used to be mediocre -9 in July 2020, mediocre -5 in September 2020, and high +24 in November 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said SWS.
SWS explained that the decline in the national net economic optimism score is due to slight decreases in all areas except in the Visayas.
The latest survey showed that the net economic optimism was highest in Balance Luzon at +46, followed by Metro Manila with +43, Mindanao with +43, and the Visayas with +18.
Quality of life
Meanwhile, the same survey found that 44 percent of adult Filipinos said their quality-of-life will improve (Optimists), 39 percent said it will stay the same (No Change), and 4 percent said it will worsen in the next 12 months (Pessimists).
The survey then showed that Net Economic Optimism is higher among Personal Optimists at +63, than among those who said “No Change” at +31, and among Personal Pessimists at -35.
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.
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