SWS: Filipinos see quality of life worsening in Q2 2018

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 16) — More Filipinos believe that their lives worsened in the second quarter of 2018, according to an independent pollster.

The Social Weather Stations (SWS) releases quarterly surveys on the personal perception of Filipinos on their quality of life. Their latest poll, conducted from June 27-30, 2018, showed that less Filipinos believe that their lives have improved in the second quarter of the year.

The survey shows that only 32 percent of Filipinos say that their lives improved in the last quarter. This is the lowest amount of "gainers" recorded during the Duterte administration so far.

Meanwhile, 27 percent of Filipinos believe that their lives got worse during the past quarter. This is also the highest amount of "losers" recorded during the current administration and puts the net gainer score for the quarter at +5.

Based on location, more gainers came from Mindanao, which had a +14 score. Meanwhile, more Visayans believed that their lives worsened, at -11 points.

Net gainer scores slid in all socioeconomic classes, with classes ABC posting a 2-point decline at +31, and class E posting a 3-point decline at +1. 

Class D showed the most decline in net gain at +4 points from +22 last quarter.

Following this assessment, more Filipinos are optimistic that their personal lives will get better in the next twelve months.

The SWS reported that almost half of their respondents, at 49 percent, believe that their lives will get better, 3 percent more than what was recorded last survey.

Personal optimism was at a flat +31 in Visayas, and declined by 2 points to +48 in Mindanao. On the other hand, personal optimism was reported higher in all of Luzon, with a 4-point gain to +41 in Metro Manila and a 9-point gain to +49 for the rest of Luzon.

Based on socioeconomic classes, Class E has the most hope for the future at +41 points, a 10-point increase from last quarter's score. Classes ABC had a mere 1- point increase to +43, while Class D had a 3-point increase to +45.

Optimism on the Philippine economy for the next twelve months was reported flat at 43 percent, a mere 1 percent improvement from last quarter's survey.

Economic optimism fell greatly in Metro Manila by 15 points, posting a net economic optimism score of +13.

Economic optimism declined slightly in Visayas by 3 points to +20, and gained slightly in Balance Luzon by 2 points to +30. More optimism was recorded in Mindanao at +49, a 6 point increase from last quarter's scores.

SWS has a margin of error of  ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The pollster conducted face-to-face surveys with 300 adults age 18 and above from each region, to a total of 1,200 respondents.

The survey was conducted when inflation breached a five-year high at 5.2 percent in June and the subsequent interest rate hike of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to 3.5 percent. The minimum wage rate was raised in Visayas, but was lower than what labor groups sought.

The survey does not include the period when inflation posted a fresh five-year high of 5.7 percent in July, the subsequent policy hike of the BSP by 50 points, President Rodrigo Duterte's State of the Nation Address, the signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the violent dispersal of workers in NutriAsia, and the floods during Tropical Storm Karding.