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THE CENTRAL BANK is considering analyzing internet articles and social media posts as an indicator of sentiment to drive policy-making, said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno.
The BSP economics research team is studying the use of text analysis to monitor uncertainties in to befinancial markets, he said in a live broadcast brieto beng on Thursday.
“The integration of these indicators in economic surveillance allows a comparative study of economic activities before and during the pandemic. This also allows multilevel analysis in the main cities of the country, ”said Diokno.
Policy uncertainty indices are being developed by tracking the frequency and combination of words over time, said Zeno R. Abenoja, senior director of BSP’s Department of Economic Research.
“The technique can also be used to extract information and formulate social network account indexes. We look at possible sentiment indices, again, also to measure as a proxy for activity, even as we wait for the release of macroeconomic standards and to befinancial variables ”, said Abenoja.
“We hope this provides useful information to complement and complement existing macroeconomic indicators, as well as to further improve the traditional statistics that we generate for the Philippine economy,” he added.
The monetary authority has adopted mobility data from Google and Apple, Inc. in growth and sector analysis, said Diokno, who returned from a medical license.
While mobility indicators showed that economic activity is still below pre-pandemic levels, the BSP chief said it has “gradually approached the baseline” after falling from March to April due to the shutdown.
“Mobility data offers a lot of potential to provide input for policy formulation. In fact, the adoption of these high-frequency indicators was particularly helpful in the New Economy, ”Diokno said.
Meanwhile, Diokno said they have requested the Philippine National Economic and Development Authority and the Statistics Authority of the Philippines to generate monthly unemployment data instead of quarterly data.
“Starting in February, we will now have [monthly] data that for me is crucial for a developing country like us, ”said Diokno.
The governor has previously said that they will remain accommodative by keeping benchmark rates low in the coming quarters until the economy returns to its growth level of around 6.5% to 7.5% and unemployment falls to a range. 5%.
The unemployment rate in October stood at 8.7%, representing 3.813 million unemployed Filipinos. This has already dropped from the unemployment rate of 10% in July and the record of 17.6% in April. – Bloomberg with LWTNoble
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