Palace welcomes survey result on country’s positive business outlook

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. (File photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang welcomed on Saturday the results of the Business Expectations Survey showing that business outlook in the country improved for the first quarter of the year.

“The Palace welcomes the latest Business Expectations Survey showing business outlook in the country rising to 35.2% in the first quarter of 2019 from 27.2% during the last quarter of 2018,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

“We consider this jump of business optimism as a good indicator of strong business and investor confidence to the decisive leadership of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and his competent economic team, which resulted in the easing of inflation and higher government infrastructure spending, two of the primary reasons mentioned by respondents for their upbeat outlook,” he added.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas released on Thursday the results of separate consumer and business confidence surveys, pointing that the results represented the largest quarter-on-quarter increase since the start of the nationwide survey in 2007.

READ: PH consumers, business turn bullish

According to Panelo, it has always been in the mind of Duterte to improve and strengthen the economy of the country.

“The Chief Executive is a man of action and his recent stern resolve to address the challenges that plagued the nation showed that his utmost priority is our people,” he said.

“His leadership style is reflected on his swift action, which is for effecting real and lasting change,” Panelo added.

The confidence index is computed as the percentage of households that answered in the affirmative less the percentage of households that answered in the negative with respect to their views on a given indicator. The overall consumer confidence index measures the average direction of change in three indicators: overall condition of the economy, household finances and household income. /jpv