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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.

SENIOR EXECUTIVES of some of the country’s biggest companies have a rosy outlook for the general economy and business prospects this year, according to results of the First Semester Executive Outlook Survey which the Makati Business Club e-mailed to journalists yesterday.

“The Makati Business Club (MBC) members expressed a highly optimistic outlook for the Philippine economy, expecting it to either surpass or sustain last year’s 6.8% GDP growth,” the MBC said in a statement on survey findings.

Despite a critical outlook on trade and likelihood of higher interest rate and inflation and further depreciation of the peso this year, businessmen still remain optimistic the Philippine economy to either sustain if not surpass 2016’s GDP growth rate of 6.8 percent, a survey by the Makati Business Club (MBC) revealed.

In its First Semester Executive Outlook Survey for 2017, majority or 83 percent of the senior business executives of MBC members polled expect a higher or same level of GDP growth for 2017 compared to last year’s 6.8 percent growth rate. Only 17 percent of the respondents project a lower economic growth rate.

The Makati Business Club (MBC) is bullish about the local economy this year as its members expressed a general sense of bullishness in the group’s first-semester executive outlook survey for 2017.

MBC said that its members were highly optimistic that the local economy would either surpass or sustain last year’s 6.8-percent GDP growth, withstanding anticipations of an increase in inflation and interest rates this year amid a critical outlook on trade.

MANILA, Philippines – Business executives in the country remain highly optimistic in their outlook on the Philippine economy despite anticipation of higher inflation and interest rates this year coupled with a critical outlook on trade, a survey conducted by the Makati Business Club (MBC) showed.

MBC’s First Semester Executive Outlook Survey for 2017, released yesterday, revealed that the bullish outlook on the economy is prompting most firms to continue pouring big investments into the country in the coming year.

A majority or 83 percent of the senior business executives polled said they expected a higher or the same level of gross domestic product growth for 2017 compared to the previous year’s 6.8 percent growth rate, while only 17 percent projected it to be lower.