Business confidence in the Philippines weakened in the second quarter on lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the re-imposition of stricter community quarantines to curb the further spread of the disease, according to the latest Business Expectations Survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.
The survey showed that the overall confidence index for second and third quarters decreased from previous quarter’s survey results. The confidence index for the second quarter dropped to 1.4 percent from 17.4 percent in the first quarter while that for third quarter declined to 31.4 percent from the previous quarter’s survey result of 42.8 percent.
The respondents’ less optimistic outlook for the two quarters of 2021 was attributed to the upsurge of COVID-19 cases, re-imposition of stricter community quarantine, particularly in NCR Plus and elevated inflation rate due to supply constraints. Respondents cited concerns over the pace of the vaccination roll-out and the expected seasonal factors for third quarter.