The Central Bank of the Philippines published the inaugural results of its new monthly Business Expectations Survey (BES), shifting from a quarterly to a monthly cadence to track business sentiment more closely amid rapidly changing domestic and external developments. The January 2026 round showed businesses remained net optimistic, with the Confidence Index (CI) staying positive. The January CI registered 0.9 percent, lower than 29.7 percent in the Q4 2025 quarterly survey, while the three-month-ahead and year-ahead CIs rose to 33.3 percent and 38.6 percent, respectively. The outlook was supported by expectations of higher consumer demand and business process enhancements, with stronger sales, improved domestic conditions and more favourable investment prospects lifting confidence for the next quarter and next 12 months. Methodologically, the monthly BES uses the same sampling frame and questionnaire as the quarterly survey with minor wording changes to the reference period; each round now covers about 500 firms nationwide (507 firms in January across all 18 regions, with a 48.1 percent response rate), compared with around 1,500 previously, and the nationwide margin of error increases to around 6.0 percent (±6.2 percent in January) from about 3.0 percent.
Central Bank of the Philippines 2026-02-26
Central Bank of the Philippines launches monthly Business Expectations Survey and reports January confidence index at 0.9 percent
The Central Bank of the Philippines released the first results of its new monthly Business Expectations Survey, transitioning from a quarterly to a monthly format to better monitor business sentiment. The January 2026 survey showed a positive Confidence Index (CI) of 0.9 percent, down from 29.7 percent in Q4 2025, with future CIs rising due to anticipated consumer demand and business improvements. The survey methodology remains largely unchanged, covering about 500 firms with a higher margin of error.