Palace confident business, consumer confidence to improve soon

Malacañang is still optimistic that business and consumer confidence will improve in the coming months, amid a survey that business confidence was less optimistic in the last quarter of 2018.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo gave the reassurance in reaction to the results of the fourth quarter Business Expectations Survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The survey showed that the overall confidence index of the business sector dropped to 27.2 percent in the last quarter of the year, compared to 30.1 percent in the previous quarter.

“The Palace remains confident that business and consumer confidence will still improve in the coming months,” Panelo said in a statement on Friday.

He added: “The President has kept an ear on the ground and matched this with his strong political will and decisive action in responding to our people’s concerns.”

In the BSP survey, the weakening peso, high interest rates, lower volume of sales and orders and lack of raw materials supply were cited as factors for the less optimistic business outlook.

Panelo recognized that the survey had “raised concerns among businessmen and consumers relative to inflation, fuel price and the peso.”

However, he pointed out that the government “has already addressed and continues to act on these issues.”

“The prices of commodities are already stabilizing, with inflation going down from 6.7 percent in October to 6 percent in November. Fuel prices have likewise dropped for the eighth consecutive week, with local oil firms implementing a P2 rollback in their products,” Panelo said.

He added that the government was also expecting the peso to strengthen against the dollar this month, as more remittances from overseas Filipinos come in during the holidays.