Economic growth may get a much-needed boost in the current quarter of the year as consumer confidence improved amid a better job market and stable prices, results of a new central bank survey showed.
In a report, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said consumers’ outlook for the fourth quarter was less bleak, pointing to higher domestic consumption in the closing months of the year.
“This augurs well for future growth because there’s a good correlation between consumer expectations and private consumer spending,” BSP Assistant Governor Cyd Tuaño-Amador said Friday.
Results of the BSP’s fourth-quarter consumer expectations survey (CES) showed that pessimism declined to -21.8 percent from -26.3 percent the previous quarter. CES scores are almost always negative, but still serves as an indicator for domestic consumption, which makes up two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP).
The score is computed by getting the difference between optimists and pessimists.
In July to September, consumer sentiment fell to its lowest since the first quarter of 2010. Economic growth similarly slowed to 5.3 percent in the same period, the lowest since 2011.
This brought average growth for the first three quarters to 5.8 percent. For all of 2014, the government is targeting a growth of at least 6.5 percent.
Consumer confidence is measured across three indicators, namely the country’s economic condition, a family’s financial situation and family income. The survey was conducted in October, or before Typhoon “Ruby” made landfall in the country.
The better result for the fourth quarter was a result of stable consumer prices and the availability of more jobs in the country. This contributed to usual causes of celebration—yearend bonuses for salaried workers—that comes this time of the year, the BSP said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released the results of the Labor Force Survey (LFS) for October 2014 showing that the number of employed Filipinos increased by 2.8 percent to reach 38.8 million from 37.8 million in the same period last year, translating to 1.05 million jobs generated.
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