Pinoy optimism for 2012 up – SWS

MANILA, Philippines – More Filipinos expect their lives to improve in the next 12 months, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

The survey, conducted from Sept. 4 to 7, found 39 percent of respondents who expect their quality of life to improve (“optimists”) in the next 12 months, while nine percent expect it to get worse (“pessimists”), for a net score of 30.

The latest figure was higher than the 36 and 35 percent optimism recorded in June and March, respectively.

Those who expect life to worsen (“pessimists”) remained at October’s nine percent level, but a decline from 11 percent in the March survey.

Similarly, net optimism over the economy’s prospects in the next 12 months rose further into the “very high” territory at +22 in the September survey from +14 in June and from a mere “high” +4 last March.

Meanwhile, those who think the economy will grow improved to 35 percent from 29 percent in June.

Those who expect the economy to worsen dropped to 14 percent in September from 16 percent in June and 24 percent in March.

However, the third-quarter net economic optimism score was less than the +30 and +29 recorded in November and September last year.

The survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide.

The results of the SWS survey were published in the newspaper BusinessWorld yesterday.

According to the SWS, those who said quality of life improved (“gainers”) over the past 12 months hit 26 percent, the highest since the quarterly survey under the current administration started in September last year.

Those who said their lives worsened (“losers”) went down to 32 percent in September, the lowest this year, though still higher than the levels seen in the September and November 2010 surveys.

In terms of geographic representation, the third quarter survey found both net personal and net economic optimism worsening in the Visayas.

The Visayas and Metro Manila also saw their net scores in terms of whether life improved or worsened falling further into negative territory in the third quarter.

None of the socioeconomic classes represented showed lower scores in terms of net personal and economic optimism, as well as change in quality of life over the past 12 months, and improvements were recorded in some cases. –Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)