Shifting Into High Gear

Business sentiment improves for the second consecutive quarter as corporate leaders expect urban and rural consumption to rise over the next six months, finds the latest Business Today-C fore Business Confidence Survey.

- Manu Kaushik

The gloom in the corporate sector is making way for an up beat mood. The passage of the GST (goods and services tax) Bill in Parliament and implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations coupled with the overall festive season buoyancy have contributed to a rise in confidence levels. Indeed, business sentiment as measured by the Business Confidence Index (BCI) has improved for the second consecutive quarter.

The confidence level, on a scale of 100, has jumped to 53.1 in the July to September period. In the past two surveys, the confidence level stood at 51.5 (in April-June) and 49.6 (in January-March). The BCI in the same quarter last year stood at 55.4.

Business confidence had fallen for five consecutive quarters before starting to climb from the first quarter of 2016/17. The BCI was launched in January to March quarter of 2011. Market research agency C fore quizzed 500 CEOS and chief financial officers across 12 cities for the survey.

The survey shows that corporate leaders believe the overall economic situation, financial situation, production level and sales would improve in the October to December period. For instance, some 37 per cent respondents expect overall economic situation to get better in the current quarter as compared with 29 per cent respondents expecting the same in the previous survey. Some 44 per cent respondents say that sales are likely to improve in the October-December period. The corresponding figure in the previous survey was 34 per cent.