BSP survey shows high consumer sentiment level

Sentiment of Filipino consumers improved in the second quarter, with their confidence reading hitting the highest on record, as the economy’s encouraging performance and investment-grade credit rating made households felt they were better off than in the recent past.

Results of the latest Consumer Expectation Survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that the net consumer confidence index (CCI) for the second quarter remained in the negative territory but significantly improved to -5.7 percent.

The index came from -19.5 percent in the second quarter last year and -11.2 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The latest index is the highest registered since the BSP started conducting the survey in the first quarter of 2007. Previously, the highest was the -8.5 percent recorded for the fourth quarter of 2010.

The CCI is computed as the difference between the percentage of respondents who said they were optimistic about the economy and their income situations and those who said the opposite.

The latest survey, conducted nationwide   by the BSP from April 3 to 15, covered 5,884 households. The response rate was 97.3 percent.

Of the respondents, 51.6 percent were from the low-income group earning less than P10,000 a month, 36 percent from the middle-income group earning P10,000 to 29,999 a month, and 12.4 percent from the high-income group earning at least P30,000 a month.

BSP Assistant Governor Ma. Cyd Tuaño-Amador said the improvement in the index in the second quarter was attributed largely to the economy’s encouraging performance.

The Philippines was cited as one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia last year after it posted a 6.8-percent growth rate. In the first quarter, the Philippines sustained this encouraging performance, expanding by 7.8 percent year on year to exceed even China’s 7.7 percent and become the fastest-growing economy in Asia.