4 of 10 Pinoys think economy unchanged under Noy

MANILA, Philippines - Despite the reported economic gains achieved under the Aquino administration, four in 10 Filipinos think the state of the economy remained “unchanged” from the previous year, according to a recent survey by Pulse Asia.

Conducted from June 20 to July 4, Pulse Asia’s Ulat ng Bayan nationwide survey found “a big plurality” of Filipinos (43 percent) saying the economy is unchanged year-on-year.

This view was expressed mostly by respondents from Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon (48 to 50 percent) and Classes A, B, C and D (42 to 48 percent), the pollster said.

The survey also showed that 29 percent of Filipinos believed that the state of the economy worsened year-on-year, while 28 percent expressed a contrary opinion.

Pulse Asia said the figures recorded at the national level and across geographic areas and socio-economic classes are constant between March and June 2013.

The only significant change was the 15-point decline in the percentage of Metro Manilans who think the state of the economy improved over the previous year.

Pulse Asia also noted a decline in the percentage of Filipinos who claimed they were “strongly affected” by the worsening state of the economy (-7 points) between March and June 2013.

Almost one in two Filipinos (49 percent) who believed the economy improved from last year is “somewhat affected” by this perceived economic growth.

The survey also found 41 percent of Filipinos claimed they “strongly felt” the impact of this growth on their own lives while 10 percent were not at all affected.

Pinoys spend more on food, electricity

Pulse Asia also found that about half of Filipinos (49 percent) reported spending more on food while 29 percent spent more on electricity in the past three months.

In particular, 29 percent of Filipinos spent more on rice while 20 percent spent more on non-rice food in the previous quarter.

Between March 2011 and June 2013, there is a decline not only in the percentage of those in Class E who spent more on food (-12 points), but also in the percentage of Visayans and those in Class D who spent more on rice (-19 and -9 points, respectively).

About 29 percent of Filipinos spent more on electricity in the last three months – higher than the figure recorded in March 2011 at 22 percent.

Urgent national concerns

Pulse Asia also found 61 percent of respondents think that controlling inflation (i.e., high prices of basic necessities) is a national concern that must be immediately addressed by the administration.

The second most often cited urgent national concern is the need to increase the pay of workers (49 percent), followed by job creation (41 percent) and poverty reduction (37 percent).

Other national concerns considered urgent by Filipinos are graft and corruption (31 percent), criminality (22 percent), equal law enforcement (16 percent), environmental degradation (16 percent), peace promotion (15 percent) and population management (11 percent).

With the exception of the seven-point decrease in the percentage of Filipinos citing criminality as an urgent national concern, the other figures are basically the same as those recorded in March 2013, Pulse Asia said.

The survey was based on face-to-face interviews of 1,200 representative adults 18 years old and above. It used a plus or minus three percentage points error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.