Business confidence at 4-year low

Philippine business optimism fell to a four-year low in the third quarter of the year, driven by slack in demand and global headwinds, even as consumer pessimism eased to its most improved level in over two years due to new income streams.

- BY DERCO ROSAL

Based on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' (BSP) latest Business Expectations Survey (BES), domestic businesses showed a darker outlook for the Philippine economy in the July-to-September period.

This is reflected in the overall business confidence index (CI) of 23.2 percent during the quarter, down from 28.8 percent in the second quarter. This was the lowest confidence level since the third quarter of 2021, which swung to a pessimism level of 5.6 percent.

A positive index indicates that more respondents are optimistic, while a negative index indicates that more are pessimistic.