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MANILA - (UPDATED 5:32 p.m.) Consumer sentiment mirrored the domestic economy’s continued expansion, improving to minus 13.3 percent in the third quarter from minus 19.5 percent in the previous three-month period, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported on Friday.
This was the second highest reading since the BSP started measuring consumer sentiment in 2007.
The central bank attributed the third-quarter improvement to a more positive outlook on employment and on higher income against broadly steady prices and good harvests.
A negative index means the pessimists among consumers continue to prevail over optimists.
For the fourth quarter, consumers however proved more optimistic of prospects with the index pushing back to positive territory at 6 percent after having fallen to minus 2.4 percent in the third quarter.
According to the BSP, high-income earners had the most favorable outlook when assessing the country’s economic condition, their family financial situation and family income.
All three measures form the consumer index or CI whose movements help the BSP gauge inflation or the rate of change in prices and craft monetary policy accordingly.
Fewer households expect to spend more for services and goods in the fourth quarter as expectations on spending going forward decreased for all commodities saved for hotel and restaurant services, which was unchanged.
A greater number of consumers viewed the third quarter as a good time to buy big-ticket items, particularly real estate, consumer durables and motor vehicles.
For the next 12 months, buying intentions for big-ticket items was broadly unchanged as the improvement in buying intentions in the National Capital Region was offset by less sanguine views in areas outside NCR, the BSP said.
Consumer views on unemployment likewise improved, the index having dropped to 46.8 percent from 60.2 percent.
“This indicated that more respondents expected the unemployment rate to decline in the year ahead. Interest rates and inflation were also expected to decline in the next 12 months. Respondents expected inflation to decline to 7.5 percent from 8.8 percent in the previous quarter, reflecting their expectations of more stable prices for the next quarter and the year ahead,” the BSP said.
Consumer look forward to a stronger peso in line with expectations of continued strong inflows of foreign capital, including the foreign earnings of millions of overseas Filipinos, the BSP said.
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