Pulse survey: 21% cut down on rice
MAJORITY or 53 percent of Filipino families reduced their food consumption while 49 percent cut down on the use of electricity in the last three months, the September 10 to 14 Ulat ng Bayan survey of Pulse Asia Research said.
The survey, which involved 1,200 adult respondents nationwide with a margin of error of ±2.8 percent, showed that Filipino families spent more on food and electricity than any other items.
Pulse Asia said a majority or 95 percent (up from 89 percent last year) said food and electricity (62 percent down from 68 percent) topped their monthly expenditures.
It added that of those who spent more on food, around 83 percent (up from 67 percent) spent it on rice and 61 percent (statistically unchanged from 60 percent) on non-rice food items.
The survey firm said that across geographic areas (89 percent to 98 percent) and socio-economic (94 percent to 99 percent), the majority cited food as one of the household items they spent more on in the previous quarter.
Pulse Asia said other items that Filipino families spent monthly on were gasoline/diesel (22 percent), medicine and other health-related needs (17 percent), water (16 percent), liquified petroleum gas (15 percent), transportation (13 percent), cellphone load (4 percent), and recreation-related expenses (3 percent).
The survey was held on the heels of the implementation of the price ceiling for regular and well-milled rice due to high prices, and the increase in headline inflation from 4.7 percent in July 2023 to 5.3 percent in August due to the increase in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, among others.
Pulse Asia also found that a little over half of the population or 53 percent (down from 57 percent) reduced their food consumption in the past three months.
It also found that of those who reduced their food consumption, 41 percent said they lowered their spending for non-rice food items while 21 percent said they consumed less rice.
Pulse said the other expenses that Filipino families cut back on were electricity (49 percent down from 55 percent), cellphone load (28 percent up from 36 percent), water (25 percent unchanged), LPG (21 percent from 18 percent), gasoline/diesel (20 percent from 18 percent), recreation-related expenses (17 percent from 23 percent), transportation (16 percent from 22 percent), and medicine and other health-related needs (11 percent from 15 percent).
It added that 8 percent said they did not reduce their consumption of any of these items during the past three months.
Pulse said almost all adult Filipino adults (99 percent) observed that there were price increases in commodities that they regularly purchased.
Ninety-five percent said there were increases in the prices of food, electricity (44 percent), gasoline/diesel (24 percent), LPG (19 percent), sugar-sweetened beverages (13 percent), transportation (12 percent), medicines (11 percent), water (7 percent), recreation (3 percent), cellphone load (3 percent), cigarettes (2 percent), and alcoholic drinks (1 percent).
