Central Visayas businessmen ‘less optimistic’ about economy

Fewer businesses in Central Visayas were optimistic about the economy in the second quarter of this year, based on the quarterly Business Expectations Survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Teresita Devesa, deputy director of the Department of Economic Statistics, said that compared to last quarter, the business confidence index in Region 7 dropped  to 39.8 percent from 46.4 percent in the second quarter.

Western Visayas (Region 6) was also less upbeat, as confidence went down to 52.4 percent from 66.4 percent in the same period.

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral said the reasons cited for the less optimistic outlook were the low summer enrollment rates (in Region 6), increasing domestic competition (in the medical industry for Region 6 and in the biofuel alcohol industry for Region 7), and slack in consumer demand for electronic equipment in Region 7.

“If less people are positive about their business output, economic growth would likely slow down for Visayas,” Devesa said during the BSP’s 12th Annual Awarding for BSP Stakeholders.

Overall business outlook on the economy, however, was upbeat in the last quarter, with the overall confidence index rising to 49.2 percent in the second quarter from 45.2 percent for the first quarter of this year.

Devesa said business sentiments from the industry, wholesale and retail trade, and services sectors were slightly lower than they were in the first quarter.

The construction sector however, showed an increase in positive outlook for the second quarter.  However, the number of people saying they were optimistic is still bigger than the number of people saying they were pessimistic, said Bangko Sentral deputy governor Diwa C. Guinigundo.

“In general, we still have people saying we’re in for the long term, we will invest, we will employ more people, but we are not as optimistic as last year,” he said.
Guinigundo said several factors may have led to the decrease in business confidence in Central Visayas.

He cited the natural calamities such as typhoons that affected the production of several businesses and a weaker global economy.

Due to the movement of global markets, demand for products from exporters may have been negatively affected, he said.

Guinigundo also explained that because the Philippines is too small a player in the global market, it cannot yet influence market movements.

Because of this, the country’s export goods and services, as well as their prices, are influenced by the demand and supply of other players.

However, Guinigundo noted that more businesses are currently adopting a “wait-and-see” attitude in anticipation of the upcoming presidential elections.

“This is for the businessmen: Remember that we have a growing economy. We are a high-consumption nation. So, as long as you have good supply of products and services, that should generate demand,” he said.

Bangko Sentral gave four awards: two in relation to the Business Expectations Survey, namely,   J.O. Construction as “Outstanding Respondent Among Small Firms” and the Philippine Tonan Corp. as “Outstanding Respondent Among Large and Medium Firms.”

The Philippine Statistics Authority regional office was cited as “Outstanding Partner for Report on Regional Economic Developments of the Philippines” while Cebu Credit Surety Fund was awarded as “Outstanding Credit Surety Fund.”