Survey: More Filipinos confident...

minus percentage of economic pessimists) — a point below the +41 in October 2022 but still deemed “excellent” by the SWS as it had been since December 2021.

Net economic optimism was the highest in Metro Manila with +47, but it notably declined by five points from its previous record at +52.

Mindanao was the next area with the highest net economic optimism at +45, followed by Balance Luzon at +40 and Visayas at +27.

“Net economic optimism tends to be higher among those with more years of formal education,” SWS explained.

It took note that more college graduates (+51) are confident that the economy will improve compared to the optimism of junior high school graduates (+40), non-elementary graduates (+37) and elementary graduates (+35).

Knowing the economic optimists

Net economic optimism, according to the SWS, is higher among the 49 percent of Filipinos who believe their quality of life will improve in 2023 (+65).

“Compared to October 2022, net economic optimism stayed at an excellent +65 among personal optimists,” it added. The poll body said net economic optimism was similarly higher among those who believe their quality of life was better than 12 months before (+51).

It was also more inclined toward Filipinos who belong to families that consider themselves not poor (+42) than those who rated themselves poor (+36).

After five months on a skyrocketing trend, Philippine inflation slightly dipped from 8.7 percent in January to 8.6 percent in February, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The inflation slowdown, it noted, was mainly because of slower price hikes in the transport commodity group, with an inflation rate that went down from 11.1 to nine percent over the same period. 