The decline in business confidence should not be attributed to President Duterte and his policies. As we are fully aware, global uncertainties are growing due to recent events such as Brexit, Trump’s election as next US president, and slower-than- anticipated global recovery.

These resulted in risk aversion as investors prefer to adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ mode. However, we remain confident that domestic economic fundamentals are strong and further reforms in the fiscal sector can help our country become more resilient in the years ahead.