PHILIPPINE businesses may be dragged back to a harsh reality after this year’s holiday season, which they expect will offer only a temporary balm against mounting domestic and external pressures on all fronts.
According to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s largest business group, Christmas may provide a brief respite from businesses’ woes, but the challenges they face could persist well into 2027.
“No matter what the challenges, we will always celebrate Christmas positively,” PCCI president Ferdinand Ferrer told reporters on the sidelines of a conference organized by the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
“After Christmas is the difficult time,” Ferrer added.
Even now, the challenges awaiting businesses in 2027 are already taking shape.
Although it has recovered from its recent record lows, the peso remains weak and far from Ferrer’s preferred exchange rate of P58 to the dollar. Inflation also surged to 7.8 percent in October, its highest level in more than three years. Businesses are likewise grappling with wage increases in Metro Manila and other regions.
Ferrer said that these pressures have left businesses absorbing successive cost increases.
“We have no more magic wands to be competitive because it’s [challenges] from all angles,” the PCCI president said. “From the peso, the current, the fuel, transportation—everything is going up, including food [prices].”
“Businesses are absorbing the cost of all this,” he added.
Ferrer said companies had been streamlining operations and finding ways to cut costs since the pandemic, leaving increasingly limited room for further savings.
Because of this, he acknowledged that layoffs could become a possibility heading into 2027 if cost pressures persist, although workforce reductions remain a last resort.
“The last thing we want to do is [lay off] people. But it might happen,” Ferrer said.
As such, Ferrer called for stronger government intervention to address structural challenges, including high electricity costs, currency volatility and the country’s dependence on imported production inputs.
He said individual industries could no longer tackle these pressures alone, thus the need for coordinated action between the government and private sector.
“Of course, all these industries are doing their own to keep their industry afloat or competitive,” Ferrer said. “But now [they] really need this national government intervention.” (Logan Kal-El M. Zapanta © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
