SWS note waning optimism in Pinoys over economic improvement in next 12 months

RESULTS from the latest survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that forty-six percent of Filipinos are optimistic that the country’s economy will improve in the next 12 months.

This is down from 51 percent in the previous study that was conducted among 1,440 adult respondents (360 each in Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao) using face-to-face interviews.

According to SWS, aside from the 46 percent optimistic view, six percent said it would worsen and 28 percent said it would remain the same. However, the latest survey results resulted in a Net Economic Optimism score (% economic optimists minus % economic pessimists) of +40, which is still classified by SWS as ‘excellent’.

“The latest Net Economic Optimism score is 4 points below the excellent +44 in December 2021. It used to be mediocre -9 in July 2020, mediocre -5 in September 2020, and high +24 in November 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic,” SWS noted even as it rationalized that the decline in the national net economic optimism score is due to slight decreases in all areas except in the Visayas.

The latest survey showed that the net economic optimism was highest in Luzon at +46, followed by Metro Manila with +43, Mindanao with +43 and the Visayas with +18.