PH consumers still optimistic, says BSP survey

The optimism of Filipino consumers remained generally steady for the third quarter, as expectations of an improvement in the economy offset current worries about soaring prices, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

In a briefing, central bank officials said the latest result of the quarterly Consumer Expectations Survey showed only a fractional decline in the confidence index from previous quarter’s results at 8.7 percent from 8.8 percent and at 23.1 percent from 24 percent, respectively.

“The relatively steady outlook for the next quarter and the year ahead stemmed from the counterbalancing of the number of respondents that reported more positive views on the economy, in anticipation of more jobs and additional income, versus those with negative views due to expectations of higher prices of goods,” the BSP said.

At the same time, the spending outlook index of local households on basic goods and services was broadly steady at 36.3 percent for the third quarter of 2018 from 37.1 percent in the prior survey report.

“Higher spending was expected on house rent and furnishings, communication, education, recreation and culture, and restaurants and cafes, indicating that inflationary pressures could come from these goods and services,” the central bank said.

Meanwhile, fewer respondents indicated higher expenditures on food, nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages, water, electricity, fuel and transportation. The spending outlook was generally steady for clothing and footwear, medical care and personal care and effects.

Consumer confidence was more optimistic for the current quarter, with the overall confidence index increasing to 3.8 percent from 1.7 percent for the first quarter of 2018.

The higher confidence index indicates that the optimists increased and continued to outnumber the pessimists.

The index is computed as the percentage of households that answered in the affirmative less the percentage of households that answered in the negative with respect to their views on a given indicator.

According to respondents, their positive outlook for the current quarter of 2018 was mainly brought about by their expectations of an improvement in peace and order, additional income,  availability of more jobs, effective government policies and increase in family savings.