Filipinos are said to be fatalistic, as exemplified by the so-called “bahala na” or “come-what-may” attitude. Many scholars, however, have qualified this, notably F. Landa Jocano, who views bahala na as an expression of the Filipino’s confidence in the Divine, if not his own problem-solving skills. At any rate, it is both an indicator of an optimistic outlook and a coping mechanism.

This optimism is shown in the quarterly Consumer Expectations Survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). At first glance, the third-quarter results, released on Friday, present a less favorable outlook – the overall confidence index declined to 10.2 percent in the third quarter from 13.1 percent in the second quarter.

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