Fewer Visayans expect better lives – survey

MANILA, Philippines - Fewer Filipinos in the calamity-stricken Visayas region expect their lives to improve in the next 12 months, the Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) third quarter survey showed.

SWS said the net personal optimism in the Visayas dropped to a “fair” +17 in September, the lowest recorded in the region so far this year, from June’s “high” at +27.

The SWS survey was conducted from Sept. 26 to 29, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 respondents nationwide.

Results of the SWS poll were published in the newspaper BusinessWorld yesterday.

Overall, the net personal optimism remained steady at +30 in  September from +31 in June, the SWS said.

The SWS classifies net personal optimism scores of at least +30 as “very high”; +20 to +29 as “high”; +10 to +19 - which contains the historical median and mode “or what is normally expected” – as “fair”; +1 to +9, “mediocre”; zero to -9, “low”; and -10 and below, “very low.”

It found 39 percent of respondents expecting their lives to get better in the next 12 months as against only nine percent who said otherwise, resulting to a still “very high” +30 net personal optimism score.

Net optimism score in Metro Manila stayed “very high,” at +35 in September, up from +33 in June.

In “balance Luzon,” it was a “very high” +34 – also the highest this year.

The net optimism score in Mindanao also remained in the “very high” category, despite dropping by two points to +31 from June’s +33.

Better economy

The same survey, meanwhile, showed more Filipinos foresee the economy to get better in the next 12 months.

The survey found 30 percent of respondents, from 26 percent, bullish on the economy’s prospects in the next 12 months, while 19 percent, from 24 percent, expect it to deteriorate, for a net economic optimism score of a “very high” +11.

SWS said this was the highest since September 2013’s “very high” +17.