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By Katrina Mennen A. Valdez, Researcher
Business outlook this year has
reached the highest level in more than a decade, according to the
Makati Business Club (MBC) executive outlook survey released
Thursday.
“The economy for 2007 is the
most upbeat in 11 years,” MBC said in a statement.
The survey revealed that 81
percent of respondents are optimistic that economic growth this year
will be higher than the 5.4 percent that the country recorded in
2006.
This percentage of optimistic
respondents was only overshadowed in July 1996 when 93.9 percent of
those surveyed believed economic growth would be higher in 1996
compared to 1995.
Earlier last year, only half of
those participated in the survey expected 2006 economic growth to be
higher than the previous year.
On the other hand, larger number
of respondents had positive outlook this year because of other major
economic indicators like lower inflation (61.3 percent of
respondents) and lending rates (66.1 percent); appreciating peso
(62.9 percent); higher levels of investments (74.4 percent), exports
(72.6 percent) and imports (83.9 percent).
Moreover, the brighter outlook
this year has been rooted from the healthier fiscal position,
stronger peso, lower inflation and lending rates, as well as the
growing of investor’s confidence for the country, the MBC said.
On the corporate front, on the
other hand, respondents have also expressed optimism for their
companies this year. Majority of the respondents projected that
their 64.5-percent net income will be much higher in this year.
On a latest ranking, the Bangko
Sentral and the Department of Finance (DoF) remained the best
performing among 37 government agencies, while the Supreme Court
(SC) has moved up from No. 8 to No. 3 pushing the Securities and
Exchange Commission to rank 4 from 3.
The Court has improved its
ranking because the respondents believed that it upheld the
Constitution after trashing the Charter-change initiative and other
unconstitutional presidential orders, MBC executive director Al-berto
Lim said.
While the Department of Trade and
Industry moved down from 4 to 6, Lim clarified that it has much
improved net satisfaction record.
“Tourism remained on its post
at rank 5 because they [Tourism] did very well, they brought in a
total of 2.8 million tourists, which is the highest ever,” Lim
said, commenting on DOT’s performance.
The National Economic and
Development Authority remained at rank 7, with the Department of
Budget and Management leapfrogging from rank 13 to 8 due to good
fiscal reform performance.
The survey also indicated that
the Department of Labor and Employment advanced from 11 to 9, while
the Bureau of Internal Revenue jumped from 15 to 10 because of a
much improved tax collection efforts.
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