Businesses upbeat as economy fully reopens

The full reopening of the Philippine economy has lifted investors’ confidence, results of the first quarter 2023 Business Expectations Survey (BES) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) indicate.

In a briefing on Thursday, BSP Monetary Policy Sub-Sector officer-in-charge Redentor Paolo Alegre Jr. said the confi- dence index (CI) for this quarter, the second quarter and the next 12 months significantly improved.

Aside from the full reopening of the economy and lifting of all movement restrictions, Alegre also attributed the improvement of business firms’ CI to higher consumer demand for products and services, increased business activities and sustained economic recovery, and expansion and new business opportunities in healthcare, manufacturing and construction sub-sectors.

For the current quarter, the CI rose to 34 from 23.9 in the previous quarter.

CI for the next quarter inched up to 49 from quarter-ago’s 31.3 and the index for