Palace sees better business, consumer optimism in coming months

Malacañang is confident that business and consumer confidence will go up in the coming months as prices of goods are already stabilizing. (File Photo: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson/Facebook)

MANILA — Malacañang is confident that business and consumer confidence will go up in the coming months as prices of goods are already stabilizing.

In a statement on Friday, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Duterte administration has addressed and continues to address the rising prices of goods.

“The President has kept an ear on the ground and matched this with his strong political will and decisive action in responding to our people’s concerns,” Panelo said.

Panelo acknowledged the concern of the business community and consumers on inflation, fuel price, and peso exchange as reflected in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Fourth Quarter Business Expectation Survey (BES) and Consumer Expectation Survey (CES) released on Thursday.

“The prices of commodities are already stabilizing, with inflation going down from 6.7 percent in October to 6 percent in November. Fuel prices have likewise dropped for the eighth consecutive week… We also expect a turnaround in the peso this month,” Panelo said.

The recent survey showed that the confidence index (CI) slipped to 27.2 percent from 30.1 percent in the third quarter of the year while the CES survey showed that CI went down to -22.5 percent from -7.1 percent in the previous quarter.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo, in a briefing Thursday, said the sentiments would not have been so negative had respondents known that November inflation would settle back to only 6 percent from a multi-year high of 6.7 percent in September and October.