Optimism over quality of life, economy still ‘excellent’ — SWS

The pollster also found that 43 percent of Filipinos are optimistic that the country’s economy in 2019 “would get better,” while 13 percent of them feel “it would deteriorate.” (File photo: Brian Evans/Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

Filipino optimism over the quality of life and the Philippine economy remained ‘excellent’ in the second quarter of 2018, according to the latest survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS) released on Thursday, August 16.

Among 1,200 survey respondents, the June 2018 survey revealed that 49 percent of them are expecting that their personal quality of life will improve in the next 12 months, while five percent of them believes that it will only get worse.

The pollster also found that 43 percent of Filipinos are optimistic that the country’s economy in 2019 “would get better,” while 13 percent of them feel “it would deteriorate.”

These figures led to a net personal optimists score of +44, and a net economic optimists score of +30, respectively, which are both classified by SWS as ‘excellent.’

The four-point climb in net personal optimists nationwide, the SWS said, was due to increases in Balance Luzon and Metro Manila, combined with a steady score in the Visayas, and a decline in Mindanao, from March 2018 to June 2018.

Net personal optimists score rose in Balance Luzon to +49 (excellent), while it jumped at +41 (excellent) in Metro Manila.

It stayed at +31 (very high) in the Visayas but declined slightly in Mindanao at +48 (excellent).

Moreover, the one-point addition in national net economic optimists was due to increases in Mindanao and Balance Luzon and decreases in Metro Manila and Visayas.

Net economic optimists rose in Mindanao and Balance Luzon to +49 (excellent) and +30 (excellent) in June 2018, respectively.

But in Metro Manila, it fell to +13 (very high), while it dropped slightly in the Visayas to +20 (excellent) in the same period.

According to the SWS, net economic optimists refers to expectations about the general Philippine economy and is different from net personal optimism, which refers to expectations in personal quality of life.

While optimism in the quality of life and economy stayed “excellent,” more Filipinos still believe that their lives worsened.

The Second Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey revealed that 32 percent of survey respondents said their lives ‘improved’ (gainers), while 27 percent said their lives ‘worsened’ (losers), for a net gainers rating of +5 “high.”

“This is 15 points below the +20 (excellent) in March 2018, and is the lowest since the +3 (high) in April 2016,” the SWS noted.

According to the pollster, this 15-point decrease was due to declines in Visayas, Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, and Mindanao.

It fell to -11 (mediocre), +9 (high), +1 (high), and +14 (very high) in June, respectively.

The latest survey, conducted from June 27-30, 2018, used face-to-face interviews of the participants aged 18 years old and above nationwide, with sampling error margins of plus or minus three percent for national percentages and plus or minus six percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.