Philippine inflation remains most urgent concern —OCTA survey

In this photo taken on July 20, 2022, an employee compares the sizes of pandesal at a bakery in Manila. As the war in Ukraine pushes up wheat prices and a weaker peso raises the cost of imported edible oil, many Philippine bakers are shrinking the size of the pandesal to cope with higher inflation. Jam Sta. Rosa/ AFP

Majority of adult Filipinos believe that inflation remains the most urgent national concern for the first quarter of 2024.

The most recent Tugon ng Masa survey by OCTA Research found that 66% of adult Filipinos see as an urgent concern “controlling the increase in prices of basic goods and services.”  It is also the top concern across major areas and income classes.

The concern on access to affordable food (44%), increase in wages (44%), creating more jobs (33%), and reducing poverty (30%) followed.

Preparing for terrorist threat and Charter change are the Filipinos’ least concerns, the poll showed.

“Fewer adult Filipinos identified controlling inflation as a top urgent national concern… The figure is seven percent lower than in the previous quarter (4th quarter of 2023). Despite the decrease, it is still around ten percent higher than the average of the first three quarters under the Marcos administration,” according to the survey.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews from March 11 to 14, 2024. One thousand two hundred (1,200) male and female probability respondents aged 18 and above were interviewed for the study.

The survey has a ±3% margin of error at a 95% confidence level. Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following margins of error at a 95% confidence level: ±6% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

As to the “urgent personal concerns,” the survey showed 71% of adult Filipinos said that staying healthy was their most urgent personal concern, while 57% said that they just wanted to have enough to eat for the day.

In line with the concern on inflation and access to affordable food, there was a noted increase on the amount of Filipinos who wanted to have “enough to eat for the day” at 57%.

“The urgent personal concern identified by most (71%) adult Filipinos is ‘to stay healthy and avoid illness,’ followed by ‘At least to be able to have enough to eat every day’ at 57%. Completing the top three is the persona concern ‘to finish schooling or to be able to provide schooling for our children’ at 44%,” OCTA said.

“It is notable, however, that as a priority based on the ranking, more adult Filipinos would prioritize education (schooling) at 21 percent rather than having enough to eat daily at 12 percent,” it added.

The Philippines’ inflation rate accelerated further in March, marking its second straight month of rise amid faster increases in food and transportation costs, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) had reported.

National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa said inflation —which measures the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services—quickened to 3.7% in March 2024 from 3.4% in February 2024.—LDF, GMA Integrated News

This article Philippine inflation remains most urgent concern —OCTA survey    was originally published in GMA News Online.