Business remains optimistic on this year’s prospects both on the macroeconomic and corporate front, pushing companies to make additional investments and hire more people in 2017.
Results of the first semester 2017 Executive Outlook Survey of the Makati Business Club (MBC) show a little less than half of the respondents see the gross domestic product this year to be the same as last year’s 6.8 percent, while 34 percent see it higher than last year’s even as members anticipate higher inflation and interest rates this year, coupled with a critical outlook on trade.
Such positive outlook cascades in the corporate front with a large majority of the respondents projecting an increase in both gross revenues and net income in the coming year.
Only 17 percent of the respondents project a lower economic growth rate.
A high majority of 85 percent expect the country’s headline inflation in 2017 to be higher than last year’s average rate of 1.8 percent.