55% of Filipinos expect Christmas to be the same despite the pandemic
MANILA, Philippines — A slight majority of Filipino adults are expecting to celebrate Christmas the same way they did last year even if the coronavirus pandemic is still raging, a new survey revealed.
However, the number of Filipinos expecting the holidays to be more prosperous dropped by 40 percentage points from 48% to just 8%.
According to private pollster Pulse Asia, 55% of Filipino adults said that Christmas for their families will be the same as last year. Of them, 36% expect this Christmas to be just as prosperous as last year, while 18% expect that the holidays would not be prosperous.
The same sentiment was recorded in nearly all regions and classes except in Mindanao and Class E where their opinion was split between expecting to celebrate Christmas the same as last year and expecting a less prosperous holiday season.
The survey also showed that 38% of Filipino adults said that their families would be celebrating Christmas poorer this year.
A good majority of Filipinos, however, said that they are hopeful of the coming year, with 91% of them saying that they will be facing 2021 with hope.
Only 1% said that they are not hopeful for the new year and 8% said they cannot say if they are hopeful or not.
The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 2,400 adults from November 23 to December 2.
This year saw the economy fall to its lowest on record, sinking 16.9% year-on-year in the second quarter as lockdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus crippled businesses.
The country’s economic slump eased to 11.5% in the following quarter, indicating a slow recovery from the damage dealt by the pandemic. The government expects to cap the year seeing as much as 9.5% of the value of the economy slashed from last year.
Joblessness also swelled to an all-time high of 17.6% in April before easing to 10% in July and most recently to 8.7% in October, partly because the unemployed completely gave up on finding jobs. — Xave Gregorio
- Latest
- Trending
