Quality of life, prospects still ‘excellent’ — SWS
OPTIMISM over quality of life and the economy’s prospects in the next 12 months remain “excellent” despite a decline in some categories from the previous survey, Social Weather Stations said Thursday.
Conducted among 1,200 respondents in late June, the SWS survey found that those who believe their personal quality of life will improve in the next 12 months were at +44 on a net basis, up from +40 in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, net economic optimism was at +30, lower than the +31 last March.
The net score is the difference between percentage of respondents expecting an improvement, classified by SWS as “optimists,” and those expecting conditions to deteriorate, or “pessimists.”
SWS said it considers both net scores to be “excellent.”
The survey also found that 32% of Filipinos said their lives improved while 27% said their lives worsened, for a net score of +5, which SWS classified as high. But this result was 15 points below the +20 score reported in March and the lowest since the +3 in April 2016.
Balance Luzon, which excludes Metro Manila, yielded the highest net personal optimism among other areas of +49, against +40 in the preceding quarter. In Metro Manila, the net score rose to excellent with +41 in the June survey.
Visayas was unchanged at +31 in June. In Mindanao, the net score fell two points to +48 in the June survey.
Net personal optimism rose across all classes from the previous quarter, from +42 in March to +44 in June for class ABC, from +42 to +45 for class D, and from +31 to +41 for class E.
Meanwhile, net optimism in the economy remained “excellent” in all areas except for Metro Manila where it fell 15 points to +13 in the June survey. It fell in Visayas to +20 from +32 but remained “excellent.”
Net optimism in the economy also rose in class ABC from +35 in March to +42 in June and class E from +24 in March to +38 in June. The net total fell in class D from +32 in March to +27 in June.
The survey was conducted on 300 adults each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, with sampling error margins of plus or minus ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% for the regions.