Visayas business confidence dims in Q2

CEBU, Philippines - Business confidence turned less upbeat in Central and Western Visayas in the second quarter of 2015, indicating slower economic growth for the first semester of the year, a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) survey indicated.

BSP said business sentiments across sectors are less positive in Central Visayas, except for the construction sector.

"Generally the business confidence remains positive but businesses are less confident," said Teresita Deveza, deputy director of the Department of Economic Statistics.

BSP data showed that CV’s overall confidence index in second quarter decreased to 39.8% from 46.4% in the first quarter 2015 and from 43.8% in comparable period last year.       While that of WV also plunged to 52.4% from a high of 66.4% in first quarter 2015 and from 53.5 a year ago. 

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the decrease which, he noted, is also true to other regions may be attributed to typhoons and calamities that happened during the period.

He said the start of the rainy season occurred in the second quarter. Plus the El Niño phenomenon had also threatened the growth of the agriculture sector.

“So businessmen were less optimistic,” Guinigundo said.

But the deputy governor also noted the number of people saying they were optimistic still outnumbered the pessimistic ones.

Among the less optimistic are local exporters.

The central bank official said exporters are suffering from a soft global market.

"The global economy continues to be soft. When we say soft many of the developed economies are experiencing some slowdown in their economic activities," he said.

He cited that Cebu has a lot of export-oriented firms.

Construction sector 

According to the BSP survey, the construction sector was the most optimistic among all sectors – industry, wholesale and retail trade and services – in the said quarter.

Companies in the sector expected the sustainability of the expansion of construction services.

The BSP noted that Central Visayas economy continued to accelerate last year, surpassing that of the national average. The regional economy grew 8.8% in 2014.

The central bank said the region’s growth is still driven by the industry sector.

“Services and industry output sustained expansion while agricultural production continued to contract in 2014,” it said. — Carlo S. Lorenciana (FREEMAN)