Pinoy economic optimism edges lower but still ‘excellent’ — SWS

Filipinos’ optimism on the economy and their personal quality of lives dropped but remained “excellent” in the first quarter of 2018, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its latest report.

A survey, conducted from March 23 to 27, found 46 percent of adults expecting their personal quality of life to improve in the next 12 months and six percent expecting it to get worse for a net personal optimism score of +40, classified by SWS as “excellent.”

This was six points below the record-high excellent +46 (49 percent optimists, three percent pessimists) in December 2017 and similar to the excellent +40 in June 2017.

Net personal optimism has been excellent (+40 and above) since December 2015, except in March 2017 when it was a very high +36, the SWS said.

It stayed at excellent +50 in Mindanao from December 2017 to March 2018.

It also stayed excellent in balance Luzon, although down by five points from +45 in December 2017 to +40 in March 2018.

However, net personal optimism fell by one grade excellent to very high in Metro Manila, down by 12 points from +49 in December 2017 to +37 in March 2018.

It stayed very high in the Visayas, although down by eight points from September to December.

Net personal optimism stayed excellent in class ABC, despite dropping by 17 points from +59 in December 2017 to +42 in March.

It also stayed excellent in class D, or the masa, although down by five points from +47 to +42.

It dropped by two points but remained very high in class E, from +33 to +31.

The survey used face-toface interviews of 1,200 adults, 18 years old and above, nationwide.