Pinoys flay inflation handling

Seven out of 10 Filipinos are dissatisfied with how the Marcos administration controlled inflation, a Pulse Asia Research survey released on Monday showed.

In a poll conducted amid the Yuletide merriment last December, public disapproval of the administration's handling of inflation surged to 73 percent in December from 56 percent in September.

Only 9 percent of Filipinos expressed approval of the administration's response to inflation, while the rest were undecided.

Controlling inflation, or the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services, remained the most urgent national concern at 72 percent.

"Out of 16 issues included in this particular probe, (controlling inflation) is the only issue considered urgent by most adults," Pulse Asia said in its report.

The private pollster noted that most Filipinos in all regions and economic levels were concerned about inflation, with 75 percent each in Mindanao and the Visayas, 71 percent in Luzon areas outside Metro Manila (Balance Luzon), and 69 percent in the National Capital Region.

The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the inflation rate eased to 3.9 percent in December 2023, down from 4.1 percent the previous month.

However, it said that the full-year inflation rate for last year stood at 6.0 percent, higher than the 2022 inflation rate of 5.8 percent.

The year-to-date inflation at 6 percent remained above the government's target range of 2 percent to 4 percent.

Rice inflation increased from 15.8 percent in November to 19.6 percent in December. It was the largest contributor to the inflation rate last December, with 1.7 percent, with housing rentals and food and beverage services coming in second and third with 0.5 percentage points each.

Increasing workers' pay was the second most urgent national concern at 40 percent.

Ranking third among the most urgent national concerns is reducing the poverty rate at 25 percent, followed by fighting graft and corruption at 19 percent.

Other pressing issues identified in the survey included helping farmers (18 percent), addressing involuntary hunger (18 percent), and combating criminality (15 percent).

"(The) least often-cited urgent national concerns in these subgroupings are defending national territorial integrity (2 percent to 9 percent and 4 percent to 9 percent, respectively), dealing with terrorism (3 percent to 7 percent and 1 percent to 6 percent, respectively), and protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (3 percent to 7 percent and 4 percent to 9 percent, respectively)," Pulse Asia said.

The private pollster conducted its non-commissioned survey based on interviews with 1,200 Filipino adults aged 18 years old and above.

It had a plus-minus 2.8 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.

Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey had the following error margins at a 95 percent confidence level: Plus-minus 5.7 percent for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.