Consumer confidence turned more optimistic for the second quarter of 2018, with the overall confidence index increasing to 3.8 percent from 1.7 percent a quarter ago, results of the latest Consumer Expectations Survey conducted by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show Friday.
“The higher index indicates that the optimists increased and continued to outnumber the pessimists,” the Bangko Sentral said.
The confidence index is computed as the percentage of households that answered in the affirmative less the percentage of those who replied in the negative with respect to their views on a given indicator.
According to respondents, their positive outlook for Q2 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.
For the next quarter and the year ahead, consumers’ optimism remained generally steady, as the index showed a fractional decline from previous quarter’s survey 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 Bangko Sentra said.
