By MAX ESTAYO

Battered by gas prices that hit P56 per liter and rice at P37 per kilo, consumers see no chance of prices easing anytime soon and are more pessimistic about the coming months.

Housewives already groan that their grocery money can buy just half of what it can in the previous year.

They worry that some may even lose their jobs if the current squeeze continues.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported yesterday that consumer pessimism deepened in the second quarter from the first quarter on the belief that prices will continue on rising.

The BSP added that consumers also worry about higher household expenses and diminishing income.

Thus they are postponing plans to buy appliances and home furnishings.

Because of uncertainty, families of overseas workers plan to save more the dollars they receive from relatives.

This is bad news for business who relies on the robust consumption of OFW families.

The BSP said the survey showed OFW households intent to save more with 48.6 percent of them saying they allot a portion of their remittances for various financial investments such as savings or purchase of house. The index was higher than 21.9 percent in the first quarter.

The survey, conducted on April 1-11, covered 4,839 households nationwide 52.3 percent of which came from areas outside of the National Capital Region and 47.7 percent from NCR.

Majority or 58.2 percent of the respondents were from low-income groups (less than P10,000 monthly family income), 34 percent from middle-income (P10,000-P29,999) and 7.8 percent from high-income (P30,000 and over).

The survey had a response rate of 95 percent.

For the second quarter, the respondents said they expect expenditures on basic goods and services to rise, with the index up at 57.9 percent from 36.8 percent in the first quarter and 33.4 percent in the second quarter last year.

Consequently, consumers have less intention to buy, with only 14.7 percent of households considering buying consumer durables, motor vehicles or house and lot. This was lower than in the first quarter and comparable quarter last year.

As consumers expect their income to remain low, they have less intention to buy in the next 12 months, with the index falling to 7.9 percent from 13 percent in the first quarter and 12.1 percent last year.

The BSP said for the next 12 months, consumers expect inflation to go up, the peso to be steady against the dollar, and unemployment and interest rates to rise.

Based on the latest consumer expectation survey, consumer sentiment declined as shown by the overall consumer index or the CI.

The CI dropped to -43.8 percent in the second quarter from -32.1 percent in the previous quarter and from -26 percent last year, the BSP said. The index is the lowest since the first quarter last year.

The CI is computed as the percentage share of households that answered in the affirmative less the percentage of households that answered negative in a given indicator.

The overall CI is computed as the average of the three indices, namely: economic condition, family financial situation and family income, of all, which remained in the negative in the second quarter.

For the next quarter, consumer confidence also fell, with the index slipping to -26.9 percent from -3.4 percent in the first quarter and -6.7 percent last year.

For the next 12 months, consumers remained bearish, with the index reversing to -20.3 percent from 6.6 percent in the first quarter and 5.8 percent from second quarter last year.