Consumer Pulse Q2 2021

Philippine consumers continue to experience negative financial impacts of the pandemic

In Q2 2021, 66% of Philippine respondents (increased 1 percentage point from Q1 2021) reported their household income was currently impacted. The impact was more prominent for the middle-aged consumers: 69% of Gen Xers and 68% of Millennials were currently impacted. The outlook is still uncertain as 54% of respondents (increased 5 percentage points) expect their household income to be impacted in the future. As such, 49% of respondents (dropped 3 percentage points) expect they’ll be unable to pay their current bills/loans in full.

Philippine consumers changed their financial plans to cope with the financial impacts

A third of consumers with a private student loan, personal loan, rent payment or mortgage payment said they won’t be able to pay those bills. To cope with the financial impacts of the crisis, nearly half of Philippine respondents said they reduced their discretionary spending and saved more in the past three months. Nearly half plan to continue these financial management measures in the coming three months by decreasing discretionary spending. 

Philippine consumers believe access to credit and credit monitoring are important

Even though 86% (dropped 4 percentage points) of respondents believe access to credit is at least moderately important to achieve their financial goals, only 32% (dropped 2 percentage points) said they have sufficient access to credit. Amongst all respondents, 47% (dropped 8 percentage points) were planning to apply for new credit or refinance existing credit within the next year. In particular, Gen X and Millennials had greater credit needs: 52% of Gen Xers and 50% of Millennials said they plan to apply for credit or refinance. Of respondents, 94% felt monitoring credit was important, and 68% checked their credit at least monthly.