Controlling inflation is top concern of Pinoys — Pulse Asia survey

Controlling inflation is the main concern of Filipinos at present, a June 2022 survey by Pulse Asia showed.

The survey, conducted from June 24 to 27, showed that 57% of Filipinos want the Marcos administration to take measures to control the inflation rate.

"This is the leading first-ranked national concern (29%) and is deemed urgent by small to considerable majorities across geographic areas and socio-economic groupings (62% to 69% and 58% to 62%, respectively), with the rest of Luzon and Class ABC being the exceptions (46% and 48%, respectively)," Pulse Asia said.

Inflation clocked in at 6.1% in June, marking its fourth straight month of acceleration and the highest reading in over three years since October 2018’s 6.9%.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said on July 5 that he disagreed with the most recent report because "we are not that high," but Benjamin Diokno, a former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor and current Secretary of Finance, later clarified that Marcos was "referring to it as a full-year figure."

The year-to-date inflation stands at 4.4%, which is within the 4.5% to 5.5% target set for 2022 by the Development Budget Coordination Committee last week.

According to Pulse Asia, inflation is the "most urgent" national concern of residents in Metro Manila (67%), followed by those living in Mindanao (69%). 

Those belonging to Class D and E (58% and 62%, respectively) also see the issue as the top concern that must be resolved by the government, the survey showed. 

Sought for comment on the matter, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said that the topic of inflation had already been covered at the previous Cabinet meeting.

"The President himself reported this, so he is actually ahead of the publication of the survey having anticipated this as a problem," she told reporters.

The next issue that Filipinos want to be addressed is the need to increase the pay of workers (45%), followed by reducing poverty (33%), and creating more jobs (29%).

Other issues that Filipinos found urgent were fighting graft and corruption in the government (20%), enforcing the law on all, whether influential or ordinary people (15%), fighting criminality (14%), and promoting peace in the country (14%).

Only 7% of Filipino adults believe that it is urgent for the present administration to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Still, 14% of Filipinos want the government to provide assistance and subsidies to those who have lost their jobs amid the health crisis.

The survey is based on a sample of 1,200 representative adults who are 18 years of age or older. It has a 2.8% error margin at the 95% confidence level.

Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following error margins at 95% confidence level: ± 5.7% for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. —AOL/VBL, GMA News