Consumers stay upbeat about economy

Consumers remain optimistic about the economy in the next 12 months in hopes of higher incomes, more jobs, and stable inflation rates, a survey from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) revealed.

BSP said consumers' optimism for the long-term outlook is a reversal of their pessimism in the first half of the current year based on the latest Consumer Expectations Survey.

This compared responses obtained in the fourth quarter of 2024 with those collected in the first quarter of 2025.  

Consumers' confidence index for the next 12 months remained unchanged at 12.4 percent.

BSP said respondents feel more upbeat about their families' financial conditions than the country's overall economic growth. The survey showed the middle-income class exhibits the highest level of optimism.

Households interested in buying real estate increased to 5.7 percent from 5.0 percent.

However, consumers still expect interest rates to rise and the peso to weaken against the US dollar over the long term, leading to an inflation average of 3.8 percent or near the BSP's maximum target of 4 percent.

BSP said the inflation outlook could be driven by household expectations of higher spending on food and groceries, problems in anti-inflationary policies and programs of the government, and limited supply of goods and services.

Unlike their sentiment for the next 12 months, consumers who felt optimistic in the previous survey period turned pessimistic for the second quarter of 2025, with a confidence index of -0.5 percent from 4.2 percent. Reasons for this included expectations of faster inflation, fewer jobs, lower incomes, problems in delivery of public services due to political noise, and challenges to governance.

There were 5,490 households that participated in the survey conducted from 7 to 19 March 2025.