MANILA, Philippines - The number of Filipinos who expect their lives to improve in the next 12 months dropped in the third quarter of this year, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its latest report.
The survey, taken from Sept. 2 to 5, found 38 percent of Filipinos who see better lives in the year ahead against five percent who expect it to get worse, yielding a net personal optimism score of +33.
The latest net personal optimism is lower than the +36 (42 percent optimists versus six percent pessimists) recorded in June.
SWS said the net personal optimism dropped by four points in “balance Luzon” to +33, by four points in the Visayas to +25, and by six points in Mindanao to +34. But it increased by four points in Metro Manila to +40.
SWS also recorded four-point drops each in class D to +31 and in class E to +35.
A four-point improvement, meanwhile, registered among those belonging to classes ABC to +41.
Those who claimed they lived better lives in the past year slightly increased in the third quarter.
Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they felt improvements in their personal quality of life (“gainers”) and 25 percent said their situation worsened (“losers”), for a net gainers score of +4.
This was a mere point above the +3 recorded in June (28 percent gainers versus 26 percent losers).
On the other hand, those who said they expect the general economy to improve in the next 12 months slightly went up in September.
The net optimism about the economy increased to +18 (30 percent who said it would get better against 12 percent who felt otherwise) from +15 logged in June (31 percent optimistic versus 15 percent pessimistic).
It improved in Metro Manila (to +19 from+7 in June), Mindanao (where it stayed at +25 from +19) and in “balance Luzon” (where it also stayed at +19 from +17) that offset a seven-point drop in the Visayas (to +7 from a “very high” +14).
It also noted improvements of seven, four and two points for classes ABC (to +16 from +7), class E (where it stayed at +25 from +21) and class D (where it also stayed at +17 from +15), respectively.
For net gainers and net optimism about the economy scores, SWS classifies grades of +10 and above as “very high,” +1 to +9 as “high,” -9 to zero as “fair,” -10 to -19 as “mediocre,” -20 to -29 as low, and -30 and below as “very low.”
For net personal optimism, scores of at least +30 are classified as “very high,” those +20 to +29 as “high,” +10 to +19 as “fair,” +1 to +9 as “mediocre,” -9 to zero as “low,” and those -10 and worse as “very low.”
Results of the SWS Third Quarter Survey on personal quality of life and economy were published in the newspaper BusinessWorld yesterday.
The survey has sampling error margin of plus or minus three percentage points for national percentages and plus or minus six percentage points each for Metro Manila, “balance Luzon,” the Visayas and Mindanao.