Companies with expansion plans dropped to 20.8% — BSP
About 20.8% of companies are planning to expand their operations in the second quarter of the year, dropping from the previous quarter’s 23.2%.
According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) latest Business Expectation Survey (BES), firms in the mining, quarrying, agriculture, fishery, and forestry sectors are mostly aiming for expansion in Q2.
On the other hand, fewer businesses in the manufacturing, electricity, and water industries are open for new ventures.
Despite this result, the survey recorded that 24.7% of respondents are hopeful of job prospects in the next quarter, up from 24.% in Q1.
The central bank explained that this “suggests that firms are looking forward to hiring more people in the next quarter.”
The still positive expansion and employment outlooks are consistent with the elevated business sentiment for April to June this year.
For Q2, the confidence index (CI) jumped to 59.7% from 52.8% of the previous quarter.
The most recent BES interviewed 1,498 enterprises across the country from January 21 to March 4 of this year.
