The Philippine Online Chronicles

According to the latest survey by Pulse Asia, while the majority of Filipinos believe that the state of the local economy has remained the same in the past year, a growing number of Filipinos believe it has gotten worse.

Results of State of the National Economy survey which was conducted from November 10 to 23, 2011 showed that 45 percent of Filipinos believe that the national economic situation remained unchanged over the past year. Pulse Asia noted that this is lower than the October 2010 result of 54 percent.

Meanwhile, 38 percent of Filipinos said the economy has worsened in the past year, significantly higher than the 18 percent who believe the economy has improved. The polling firm added that this is a “majority sentiment” in Mindanao at 57 percent.

“Between October 2010 and November 2011, the percentage of Filipinos saying the economy is better now declines by 12 percentage points, while the percentage of those who observed a deterioration in the Philippine economy increased by 22 percentage points," Pulse Asia said in a release posted in its website.

The polling firm said that of those who said the Philippine economy worsened, 66 percent were strongly affected while 31 percent were somewhat affected.

Pulse Asia conducted the nationwide survey based on a sample of 1,200 representative adults 18 years old and above with a ± 3 percent margin of error.

In the separate survey done by Social Weather Stations, 52 percent of Filipinos considered themselves poor while 41 percent claimed they were food-poor.