Watching and waiting

With our country seemingly on course toward ungovern-ability and economic decline, a pall of gloom has descended on the business community.

- BOO CHANCO

Local business risk takers are losing their nerve in the face of the reality they are seeing.If you ask some taipans for attribution how they feel, they are still officially optimistic. But in private, they confess their fears about the country’s future. They will watch and wait until things clear up before making significant new investments.

Watching and waiting will put our economy in a standstill. The smaller entrepreneurs who constitute the bulk of local business are worried about survival. They are feeling the consumer pulling back on spending other than for necessities.

Most are no longer sure the Christmas season will bring comparably good sales to past Christmases. The failure of consumers to spend enough to prevent the decline in our GDP last quarter is a premonition.

Deutsche Bank AG forecast the Philippine peso could weaken to P60 against the US dollar, its weakest-ever level, citing flagging business sentiment rooted in the shock and disgust over the massive corruption in the government.

Taipans as well as medium and small entrepreneurs are also angry over the humongous corruption scandal. Like everyone else, the business folks are also largely cynical that BBM will be able to deliver on his promise of “big fishes” in jail by Christmas. It’s just an aspiration, like the 21-peso-a-kilo rice.

Nothing less than jailing big time congressmen, bureaucrats and DPWH contractors will rekindle trust in BBM and the government he leads. The resignation of Babes Singson because ICI has no teeth and no budget to do its job confirms doubts people have about ICI being a moro-moro.

Some local and foreign analysts still point out that we are one of the fastest growing economies in the region. But that could be wishful thinking. Their optimistic predictions for 3Q GDP growth were well off the mark.