Filipinos' perception of the country's current state, national direction and economic prospects hits the lowest level recorded by PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. in its Pahayag 2024 end of the year survey.

The survey shows that "at a macro level, positive perceptions of the country’s current state declines to 36 percent in 3rd quarter to 31 percent in fourth quarter, while the national direction dropped from 50 percent in Q3 to 42 percent in Q4 and the economic prospects from 53 percent in Q3 to 48 percent in Q4.

The survey noted that the "negative sentiments continue to rise" and "the only relatively stable indicator is household financial prospects, which dipped slightly from 62 percent to 60 percent".

"The declines in key national indicators are primarily driven by respondents from North Central Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Among income groups, the Low-Income group remains the least optimistic about household financial prospects going into Q1 2025," the survey stated.

"While quarter-on-quarter changes are not significant, the overall trend in Filipinos’ sentiments about the state of the country is flat to decline throughout 2024. This downward trend culminates in Q4, with overall optimism hitting a low of 51 percent", it added.

The survey, conducted from November 29 to December 3, 2024, also showed that "in the succeeding quarter, the proportion of pro-administration voters declined further to its lowest level since tracking began, now at 28 percent."

"Interestingly, more registered voters are gradually leaning toward being anti-administration (30 percent) or pro-opposition (22 percent), rather than remaining neutral as seen in previous shifts," the survey said.

"Despite this trend, neutral sentiment still dominates, with 48 percent remaining neutral toward the Marcos Administration and 51 percent toward the Opposition," it added.

PUBLiCUS Asia Inc., an independent and non-commissioned survey used purposive sampling composed of 1,500 respondents randomly drawn from the market research panel of over 200,000 registered Filipino voters as respondents for Pahayag 2024 End of the Year Survey.

The 1,500 voter-respondents were divided geographically to National Capital Region with 226 respondents, North Central Luzon with 342, South Luzon with 343, Visayas with 298, and Mindanao with 291. Robina Asido/DMS