ABOUT three-fourths of Filipino consumers are resorting to side jobs for extra income, up 2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the Shopperscope 2025 study of Worldpanel by Numerator.
“More Filipinos are managing not because things suddenly got better for them,” Laurice P. Obana, Shopper Insights director at Worldpanel by Numerator, said at a briefing.
“There’s an active road that they pave and that they really hustle in order for them to manage,” she added.
The 2025 Shopperscope report is based on interviews conducted on 2,000 adults. The respondents were divided into three categories: comfortable, managing, and struggling.
Out of the 75% “managing shoppers,” 28% reported that their financial situation improved over the past 12 months.
The report added that 54% of shoppers in this group are “managing OK” regarding their finances, up from 29% previously. Those in the “just making ends meet” category declined to 40% from 54%.
The “comfortable” category improved six percentage points from a year earlier to 14%, it said.
This group consists of consumers reporting improved finances due to better career opportunities, who reported the capacity to easily cover most of their needs, while still saving money each month.
The “struggling” group accounted for 11% of the survey population, eight percentage points lower from a year earlier. This category was defined as those consumers barely getting by each month and admitted to the need to cut down on spending in the face of the high cost of living.
Ms. Obana added that the top concerns of those surveyed included rising grocery and fuel prices, and their future financial security.
“You can’t really blame them…The news nowadays is not really filled with positive things,” she said.
It projects the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry to grow 4-5% this year, with cooking oil, bottled/packaged water, and soft drinks the top spend drivers.
As of June, Ms. Obana said that FMCG growth is tracking the company’s forecast at 4.5%.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how we will end up this year,” she said. “Hopefully, we were able to continue, if not even increase, the trajectory of growth that we were expecting for packaged goods.” — Almira Louise S. Martinez