Business name registrations increase 6% in 2 months

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March 10, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Business name listings with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) rose by six percent in the first two months of the year from a year ago, signaling renewed business confidence.

Data from the DTI showed that business name registrations with the agency from January to February reached 367,757, higher than the 345,903 listings in the same period last year.

Of the registered business names as of end-February, 299,921 were new filings, while 67,836 were renewals.

The bulk of the registered business names in the January to February period were in wholesale and retail trade, reaching 217,840 filings or 59 percent of the total.

Accommodation and food service activities ranked second with 47,383 listings, followed by real estate activities in third place with 21,930 filings.

By location, Region IV-A or Calabarzon accounted for the highest number of business name listings at 63,494 in the first two months of the year.

This was followed by Region III or Central Luzon in second place with 45,563 filings and National Capital Region in the third spot with 36,028 listings.

For the month of February alone, business names registered with the DTI went up by six percent to 116,589 from 109,798 filings in the same month last year.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said in an email that the increase in business registrations reflect improving business confidence.

He said that the data may also “already reflect the normalization or lower base or denominator effects starting in 2026, after the first year anniversary of the POGO (Philippine offshore gaming operations) ban or exit by end-2024.”

The POGO ban affected some business or economic opportunities.

Ricafort said that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ move to reduce borrowing costs since August last year may have also helped increase demand for loans to support new investments and projects, including new business registrations.

“For the coming months, normalized or lower base or denominator effects would still lead to continuation of year-on-year growth in new business registrations, especially if the government’s catch up spending especially on infrastructure, worth at last P1.4 trillion is rolled out in a more expeditious manner,” he said.

He said that anti-corruption efforts and other reforms to raise governance standards would also help further improve investor confidence and translate to faster economic growth and more business registrations.

However, he said geopolitical events, particularly the conflict in the Middle East, pose risks that could drive up oil prices and inflation and in turn, reduce the odds of future rate cuts.

Last year, total business names registered with the DTI declined by 3.7 percent to 1.02 million from 1.06 million listings in 2024.