CEOs divided on revenue growth prospects amid hard times

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine chief executives are divided on whether their company will see revenues rise in the next three years, a sign a good number of corporate leaders expect the economic fallout from the pandemic to be long lasting, a new survey released Monday showed.

Fourty-five percent of the country's CEOs are "very confident" that revenues will grow in the next 3 years while the same proportion were "somewhat confident", according to a poll conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC Philippines) and Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), a business group.

The survey, which polled 161 CEOs of locally based firms, most of whom were members of MAP, was taken from mid-July to mid-August, the months of economic reopening in the country.

Broken down, 9% of CEOs were "not very confident" in terms of revenue prospects while the rest were either unsure or "not confident at all."

"With a global health crisis caused by COVID-19, business leaders had to make quick, yet careful decisions about their organizations, employees, customers, and other stakeholders," the report said.

If there's one thing that CEOs were in agreement, it would be the long haul towards economic recovery. With much of the archipelago still on partial lockdown, 83% of business leaders expect the economy to recover within 1 to 3 years.

Meanwhile, 74% of corporate leaders are penciling in over 4% economic contraction this year. As it is, the local economy already plunged into a recession after gross domestic product sank by record 16.5% in the second quarter. The Duterte administration is bracing for a 5.5% collapse this year.

According to PwC and MAP, the CEOs' bleak outlook "is not surprising." "Companies, both large and small, have reported significant losses as of the first half of the year, and are bracing for additional losses until the end of the year," the report said.

Majority of chief executives see infrastructure development (66%), government spending (63%) and domestic consumption (63%) as key economic growth drivers in the next 12 months, reflecting optimism on infrastructure as a government strategy for recovery.

Despite uncertainties, 58% of CEOs remain confident about their industry’s growth over the next 12 months. "This is not surprising because the majority of the respondents are from the essential and performing industries such as technology, manufacturing, financial services, and business process and outsourcing," the report explained.