SWS: Optimism of Filipinos 'slightly down'

Although not as upbeat as in the past three months, Filipinos remain optimistic about their living and economic conditions for the next 12 months, according to a survey of pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS). The SWS noted that the Filipinos' "personal optimism" was down slightly from its June rating of "+36," when optimists comprised 41% of those surveyed, and pessimists, 5%. "Net personal optimism has been over +20 in the past five quarters, beginning September 2009. Prior to June 2010, net economic optimism had been double-digit negatives in 30 out of 46 surveys since September 1998," SWS said. The survey results, published in SWS' media partner BusinessWorld on Thursday, said 38% expect their personal quality of life to improve in the next 12 months. Only 6% of the 1,200 adults interviewed in the survey in September said otherwise, bringing "very high" net personal optimism to +32. On the subject of the economy as a whole, 39% said they expected it to improve while 9% claimed it would worsen. Net economic optimism as of September was +29, again "very high," but down from June’s record of +39 (45% "better" and 6% "worse"). Asked to look back a year, 27% said their lives were now worse ("losers") while 25% declared it had gotten better ("gainers"), for a "fair" net gainers-losers score of -2, similar to the -6 recorded three months earlier. For net personal optimism, the SWS classes scores of +30 and above as "very high." Those in the +20 to +29 range are "high" -- beyond that normally expected or above the category containing the median and the mode (+10 to +19, tagged as "fair"). For net economic optimism and net gainers-losers, the SWS puts the most common answers, the median and the modal, in the "low" and "very low" categories. "Fair" is assigned to the negative category (-9 to zero) as this is above what is normally expected, while "mediocre" is assigned to the set between "fair" and "low." In the latest survey, net personal optimism remained at high or very high levels in all areas and classes, the SWS said. It hit a record "very high" +33 in the Visayas from the "high" +27 in June. Mindanao also saw a record "very high" of +32 from +26 ("high") three months earlier. Metro Manila had the greatest net personal optimism at +41, still "very high" although down from +44 previously. The Balance of Luzon registered a drop to a "high" +29 from June’s "very high" +43. By socioeconomic class, net personal optimism was at a "high" +24 among the ABC, down from the "very high" +48 in June; +34 from +36 (both "very high") among the class D or masa; and a "high" +26 from a "very high" +32 among the class E. Net economic optimism hit a record +32 in Mindanao from +27 in June. It was down a point to +27 in the Visayas, by seven to +38 in Metro Manila and a substantial 22 points in the Balance of Luzon to +26. It was at +29 from +36 in among the class E; +30 from +38 among the masa; and at +23 from +52 among the ABC class. The net gainers-losers score improved in Metro Manila, to +4 from -7 previously; in Mindanao, +9 from -8; and the Visayas, -8 from -11. It slipped to -7 from -2 in the rest of Luzon. By class it rose to +2 from -7 among the masa, and fell to -12 from -9 among the class E and to -21 from +9 for class ABC. The SWS survey, conducted from September 24-27, used face-to-face interviews and had error margins of ±3% for national and ±6% for area percentages. –VVP, GMANews.TV