Filipinos feel economy won't get any worse

Filipinos believe that the economy will not get any worse in the future but have started cutting back on expenses as they fear losing their jobs, a state of the economy survey showed.

A study done by the global market research company Synovate showed that 53 percent of Filipinos think that the current state of the economy is as bad as it’s going to get.

In spite of this, the survey showed that almost 94 percent of those who participated in the survey said that they cut their spending habits already.

On the other hand, 67 percent admitted that their greatest fear was to lose their job and their household income.

“Filipinos are definitely a more resilient bunch, having gone through many tough times in the past, this will be just another storm that will eventually blow over, hence they can’t imagine how much worse things can get,” Carole Sarthou, Synovate managing director said.

“For instance, close to two thirds of respondents in the US (63 percent), Japan (63 percent) and France (64 percent) believe that their economy is going downhill and will get worse before it gets better compared to only 24 percent of Filipinos,” she added.

The survey showed changes in the spending habits of Filipinos as 38 percent were saving less, 37 percent were investing less and 56 percent admitted that they had done less impulse related buying in the last six months.

“We found that Filipinos were not the only ones to cut back as compared with other Asian markets showed that people from Malaysia, Japan, and Taiwan also shared the same sentiments,” Sarthou noted.

When it came to salaries and income, 26 percent believed that they were earning the same amount of money while 33 percent said that they were taking home less pay.     – Ma. Elisa Osorio