BSP to roll out monthly business expectations survey in Q1 2026

DUMAGUETE CITY — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is eyeing the release of a monthly version of its Business Expectations Survey (BES) by the first quarter of 2026, with a similar consumer survey targeted for rollout in the second half of the year.

BSP Deputy Governor Zeno Ronald Abenoja said the monthly BES, which provides advance indications of changes in overall business activity, could be launched as early as March or April.

“To improve our ability to capture trends and better understand the structure of the economy, one of our key efforts is increasing the frequency of our surveys,” Abenoja told reporters during a media information series.

“At present, the BES and the Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) are conducted quarterly. We are hoping to move to a monthly BES by late first quarter or early second quarter,” he added.

The BES is a nationwide survey, with respondents selected through stratified random sampling from a database of the country’s top 7,000 corporations based on total assets as of 2017.

Latest BSP data showed that the overall business confidence index (CI) rose to 29.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 23.2 percent in the previous quarter.

A positive CI indicates that more respondents are optimistic than pessimistic about business conditions.

Abenoja said the monthly version of the CES—which provides advance indications of consumer sentiment for the current and succeeding quarters, as well as the next 12 months—is expected to be released in the second half of 2026.

“For the monthly CES, we are looking at the second half of the year. These initiatives depend on continued support from the governor as we work to enhance our survey rollout,” he said.

The fourth-quarter 2025 CES covered responses from 5,489 households, including 2,443 from the National Capital Region and 3,046 from areas outside Metro Manila.

High-income households accounted for 41.8 percent of respondents, followed by middle-income households at 38.3 percent and low-income households at 19.8 percent.

The overall consumer confidence index for the quarter fell further into negative territory at -22.2 percent, down from -9.8 percent in the previous quarter, indicating that more respondents held a pessimistic outlook.

“Quarterly surveys are very useful, but there are fast-moving developments in the economy,” Abenoja said.

“We want policies to be informed by these shifts, and monitoring them more closely through monthly surveys could be helpful,” he added.—MCG, GMA Integrated News