Business confidence in Philippine economic conditions softened in January but continued to remain positive, results of the latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) survey showed.
Results of the January 2026 Business Expectations Survey (BES) released Friday indicated that more businesses are optimistic about the economy than pessimistic, as the Confidence Index (CI) remained positive at 0.9 percent.
While the CI in the January round was lower than the 29.7 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025, the BSP said business sentiment showed signs of recovery as the three-month-ahead and the year-ahead CIs rose to 33.3 percent and 38.6 percent, respectively.
“The continued positive outlook in January 2026 is supported by expectations of higher consumer demand and enhancements in business processes,” the BSP said.
Stronger consumer demand and sales, improved domestic economic conditions, and more favorable investment prospects, meanwhile, lifted business confidence for the next quarter and over the next 12 months.
The BSP said the inaugural monthly BES is the start of a more frequent assessment of business sentiment in the Philippines.
The shift from a quarterly to a monthly survey will allow the BSP to monitor business confidence more closely and respond more effectively to rapidly changing domestic and external developments.
“The shift to a monthly conduct of BES aligns with the BSP’s broader efforts to enhance and expand its existing macroeconomic surveillance toolkit,” the BSP said.
According to the BSP, the monthly BES uses the same sampling frame and questionnaire as the quarterly round, with only minor wording adjustments to the reference period.
Each monthly round now covers about 500 firms nationwide, one-third of the previous quarterly coverage of about 1,500 firms. (PNA)
