THE coming year will be another banner year for SM Investments Corporation as they said that they are optimistic with their growth prospects during the last quarter.

According to Tim Daniels, the conglomerate's investor relations officer, many Pinoy spend despite the high interest rates and inflation. 

It is the same observation even on discretionary items.

"So the fastest-growing areas for us in our department stores for example, or in our specialty stores, is actually in areas like fashion, or shoes or accessories, it’s on clothing for children or it’s in toys, it’s in things for people’s pets, it’s in cosmetics and beauty," he said.

"And these are not areas that people spend on when they’re feeling very financially stressed," he noted. 

At the same time, Daniels said that they are continuing to expand their “footprint” across the country.

"When we look at the different provinces, we see a lot of opportunity. There is higher income growth, higher (gross domestic product) growth in many provinces, there’s improved connectivity. Infrastructure is going in. We see good education levels in many of these provinces. And doing it is right for expanding our businesses into them,” Daniels said.