CEOs bullish on long-term growth prospects

Overregulation and increasing tax burdens continue to dampen the confidence of local company CEOs and business leaders in terms of revenue growth prospects for their companies and industries over the short term.

Based on this year’s Philippine CEO Survey Report, 65 percent of the 119 company leaders polled said they were “very confident” about their business growth prospects in the next 12 months. This was a deterioration from last year when 73 percent of business leaders said they were “very confident” of their prospects.

A different trend, however, was seen over the medium term prospects of company leaders. This year’s survey—which was conducted by Isla Lipana & Co./PwC Philippines for the 14th Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) International CEO Conference—showed that 69 percent of CEOs were “very confident” about their business growth prospects over the next three years. This was higher than the 62 percent reported in last year’s poll.

Similarly, overall confidence in the Philippines was much higher this year, with 65 percent of the respondents believing that the government could hit a 6- to 7-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth. For 2017, 59 percent of the respondents were confident that the same level of GDP growth could be met. In last year’s report, only 52 percent were optimistic that the economy could expand by 7-8 percent in 2015, while only 48 percent believed that the same GDP growth could be attained for 2016.

MAP president Perry Pe explained in a briefing Monday that the higher confidence in the economy could be attributed to the completion of the national elections, the promise of the Duterte administration and the 10-point economic agenda that proposes higher infrastructure spending, stability of business environment and inclusive growth.