DUMAGUETE CITY — Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona Jr. said Sunday the economic performance in the fourth quarter of 2025 was “even worse” than anticipated as growth slowed following a corruption scandal.
The BSP projected the economy would grow by 3.8 percent in the final quarter of 2025. The forecast accounted for weak investor sentiment linked to a flood control corruption scandal that impacted market confidence.
Actual gross domestic product (GDP) growth reached only 3 percent in the fourth quarter. The result pulled the full-year average growth for 2025 down to 4.4 percent.
Remolona told reporters the BSP analyzed various indicators including the stock market and investor sentiment to build its models. He said that while the 3.8-percent estimate was already considered poor, the final data proved more disappointing.
“We looked at other indicators. We stamped all of those into our models and we got something that was pretty bad,” said Remolona.
He said BSP missed certain factors in its modeling because specific data was unavailable at the time. He said the institution should look more carefully at additional indicators and incorporate them into future economic models.
“When the actual data came out, it was even worse. We thought that we didn’t take account of it, but it was because we didn’t have the data on it…There are other things that we missed, to be honest, and we have to look more carefully at these other things and use them in our models,” he said.
The remarks followed questions on whether the BSP captured the quarter’s economic weakness through its standard business and consumer expectation surveys.
Remolona said the BSP has “more homework to do,” which includes gathering more social media information and other non-traditional indicators.
To improve its data collection, the BSP plans to increase the frequency of its expectation surveys from quarterly to monthly.
The Business Expectations Survey will shift to a monthly schedule in the latter part of the first quarter, while the Consumer Expectations Survey will follow in the second half of 2026.
