Filipino optimism for 2017 still at ‘very high’

Filipinos express optimism on President Duterte’s six-month rule. AP

The optimism of Filipinos on the quality of life has been recorded at “very high” during the last quarter of 2016, Social Weather Stations (SWS) said, retaining the optimism reading after President Rodrigo Duterte’s first six months in office ended.

The SWS survey, conducted from December 3 to 6 last year, showed that 48 percent of 1,500 Filipino adults were expecting their quality of life to improve in the next 12 months. Only three percent said otherwise.

This resulted in a net personal optimism score of “very high” +43, steady from previous record of +46 in September last year (46 percent optimists, three percent pessimists).

The survey also found that 37 percent of the respondents were “gainers,” who believed their lives improved from 12 months ago. On the other hand, 21 percent of respondents were “losers” who said that their life worsened.

“Net gainers in the past 2 quarters have been the highest in almost 30 years,” SWS noted.

The same survey also showed that 51 percent of Filipinos are optimistic that the Philippine economy will get better in the next 12 months, 9 percent lower than the data in the previous quarter.

Those who expected the economy to deteriorate, meanwhile, went up from 4 percent to 8 percent.

READ: SWS: Pinoys bullish on 2017

“In the case of net optimism about the economy, the most common answers – historically speaking – have been highly negative,” SWS noted, classifying 30 and below as “very low.”

The pollster added that optimism for the economy has been “very high” since June 2016.

SWS said the survey has sampling error margin +/- 3 points for national percentages./rga