MANILA, June 10 (Xinhua) — Filipinos\’ consumer confidence in the next 12 months improved significantly as the country proclaimed its new president Wednesday, a survey conducted by the local central bank showed on Thursday.
Filipinos have favorable expectations over the fresh mandate which will be exercised by newly-elected national and local government officials, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.
President-elect Benigno Aquino III will be sworn in on June 30 for a tenure of six years.
BSP said consumer confidence in the 12 months improved to 10 percent from 5.1 percent a quarter ago and -7.6 percent a year ago. The rebound in consumer confidence is similar with that of United States, China, Mexico, Hungary, Slovenia and Czech Republic.
From April to June, consumer sentiment however slightly weakened to -28.7 percent from the previous quarter\’s -27.6 amid concerns over the impact of the El Nino dry spell on the Philippine agriculture sector and the near-term uncertainties in the job market.
Notable about BSP\’s survey is that the improvement in consumer confidence over the next 12 months is reflected across all three income groups — low, middle, high — who believe that the economic condition of the country and their family\’s financial situation will be better.
This is a stark contrast to their current perception of the country\’s economic state which the high-income group had become less optimistic of, while both the low and middle income group view that their family financial situation has weakened, BSP\’s survey showed.
With the favorable outlook, the survey showed that Filipinos are seen to continue spending for big-ticket items, such as houses, consumer durables and motor vehicles.
\”The percentage of respondents that considered the current quarter as a favorable time to buy big-ticket items remained steady compared with the previous quarter. The broadly steady outlook of consumers on buying conditions for the second quarter ( will be) carried over to the next 12 months,\” BSP said.
Fewer households also expect their expenses on basic goods and services to go up in the third quarter, an outlook mostly consistent with the government\’s expectations of a lower inflation for this year, BSP said.
