As the holiday season approaches, a business group is expecting better sales and recovery from losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are very hopeful. We are expecting that we will be better this last quarter of the year. Especially now that shopping starts,” Philippine Retailers Association President Rosemarie Ong said during the Laging Handa briefing on Wednesday.
“We know that the Philippines is a consumption-driven economy. So, we are hopeful. We expect that it would be better. Hopefully, even stronger by the end of the year,” she said, noting that COVID-19 cases are declining and vaccination is ramped up.
According to Ong, owners are slowly reviving their businesses as they observed the return of shoppers in physical stores since mobility was eased when Metro Manila shifted to Alert Level 3.
“Their good news is that slowly, shoppers visit physical stores,” she said
“It is nice to hear that they are recovering. In fact, for the past months, they are seeing negative sales and they are protesting. But now, I heard they said that they are expecting to just break even until the end of the year,” Ong added.
Earlier, businesses were calling on the government to relax restrictions in the capital region to cater to more customers and regain their losses.(©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2021)
