Inflation remains top national concern among Filipinos—Pulse Asia

The September 2017 Ulat ng Bayan national survey conducted from September 24 – 30 showed that one in every two Filipinos (50 percent) considered the need to control the price as the leading national concern. (Photo by Bernard Spragg. NZ/Flickr, Public Domain)

Controlling inflation or the spiraling cost of goods remains the top concern among Filipinos, the latest Pulse Asia survey revealed.

The September 2017 Ulat ng Bayan national survey conducted from September 24 – 30 showed that one in every two Filipinos (50 percent) considered the need to control the price of goods as the leading national concern.

From 42 percent last June, the survey posted an 8-percent point rise and a 13-percent rise from last year in the percentage of Filipinos who  believe that inflation is the topmost national concern.

The country’s consumer prices rose 3.4 percent year-on-year in September 2017, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). It was also the highest inflation rate since April driven by faster increases in the cost of food, transport, and housing and utilities.

Completing the top 10 of urgent national concerns includes increasing the pay of workers (42%), fighting criminality (36%), creating more jobs (32%), fighting corruption in government (28%), reducing poverty (28%), peace promotion (21%), enforcement of the rule of law (16%), environmental degradation (14%), and reducing the amount of taxes paid by citizens (9%).

The pressing national concerns which are most often identified first by Filipinos are inflation (20%), workers’ pay (17%), and criminality (16%). On the other hand, inflation (18%) and workers’ pay (14%) are the leading second-mentioned urgent national concerns. The third-mentioned national concerns considered urgent by Filipinos, which are with nearly the same percentages, were employment (12%), inflation (11%), workers’ pay (11%), corruption (11%), criminality (10%), poverty (10%), peace (9%), environmental degradation (7%), and rule of law (6%).

While most of Filipinos in Visayas (51%), Mindanao (51%), and the rest of Luzon (52%) expresses concern about inflation, Filipinos in Metro Manila consider workers’ pay (45%) as the topmost national concern, listing inflation as the second with 38 percent.

Across socio-economic classes, most of those in Class E are concerned about inflation (56%). In Class D, the top national concerns are inflation (48%) and workers’ pay (41%) while in Class ABC, the most urgent national concerns are inflation (50%), workers’ pay (37%), criminality (36%), and corruption (36%).