Post by kirk07 on Nov 12, 2008 18:13:14 GMT 8
Manila, November 12, 2008 (AFP) - Almost nine out of ten businesses in the Philippines expect a recession in 2009, marked by a credit squeeze and job cuts, a survey published Wednesday said.
The "most alarming concern" is an expected spike in layoffs projected towards the end of the first quarter of the year, according to the survey by the Makati Business Club (MBC) published in newspapers Wednesday.
The period coincides with the end of the school year, when tens of thousands of fresh graduates will begin competing for jobs.
"Unemployment will rise, definitely," MBC executive director Alberto Lim told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
"We graduate about a million into the workforce each year. Where will that million go now?"
Eighty-seven percent of the businessmen questioned said they believed the Philippine economy would fall into recession next year, the survey found, while 60 percent said their company's workforce "will contract".
The MBC groups the country's biggest conglomerates and companies, and the survey was conducted among its members' top management.
Seventy-six percent of those surveyed agreed that obtaining bank loans will be more difficult, while 75 percent said "access to trade credits will be more difficult."
More than half also said they will cut capital expenditures next year, while eighty-seven percent said they see the peso depreciating further against the dollar.
Lim however stressed that in comparison with the United States, which has been hit hard by the credit crunch, the Philippines will only experience a "moderate downturn" next year.
The Philippine economy expanded by a record 7.2 percent in 2007, and the government has said that with the onset of the global downturn, growth is expected to top between 5.0 and 5.5 percent this year and slow to between 4.1 and 5.1 percent in 2009.
What do you think, mga adik? Naa pa kaha tay trabaho ani next year?"
The "most alarming concern" is an expected spike in layoffs projected towards the end of the first quarter of the year, according to the survey by the Makati Business Club (MBC) published in newspapers Wednesday.
The period coincides with the end of the school year, when tens of thousands of fresh graduates will begin competing for jobs.
"Unemployment will rise, definitely," MBC executive director Alberto Lim told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
"We graduate about a million into the workforce each year. Where will that million go now?"
Eighty-seven percent of the businessmen questioned said they believed the Philippine economy would fall into recession next year, the survey found, while 60 percent said their company's workforce "will contract".
The MBC groups the country's biggest conglomerates and companies, and the survey was conducted among its members' top management.
Seventy-six percent of those surveyed agreed that obtaining bank loans will be more difficult, while 75 percent said "access to trade credits will be more difficult."
More than half also said they will cut capital expenditures next year, while eighty-seven percent said they see the peso depreciating further against the dollar.
Lim however stressed that in comparison with the United States, which has been hit hard by the credit crunch, the Philippines will only experience a "moderate downturn" next year.
The Philippine economy expanded by a record 7.2 percent in 2007, and the government has said that with the onset of the global downturn, growth is expected to top between 5.0 and 5.5 percent this year and slow to between 4.1 and 5.1 percent in 2009.
What do you think, mga adik? Naa pa kaha tay trabaho ani next year?"
