According to the latest monthly LMD-Nielsen Business Confidence index (BCI) survey one in four businesspeople consulted by Nielsen, for LMD’s publisher Media Services anticipates that the economy will improve over the next 12 months, which is largely in line with the previous month’s survey results.

A further 46% of respondents expect economic condition to remain unchanged while 29% state that the economy is likely to get worse.

 “We hope that the economy will improve after the upcoming election. At present, the country is quite unstable and proper economic policies are not in place,” a survey participant observes.

While almost a quarter of the survey sample have confidence in terms of their business performance over the next three months, a large share (32%) anticipate improved sales volumes in the longer term.

To this end, a businessperson comments that “the impact of the Easter Sunday attacks is slowly taking a turn for the better. And the tourism industry appears to be gradually attracting more business.”

Sentiment surrounding the investment climate has not recovered- 72% of poll participants are of the view   that this not a good time to invest in the country.

In the meantime, only 5% of those polled by Nielsen view prevailing investment conditions in a positive light.

“The present investment climate in the country is not supportive of any business. There aren’t any policies to protect investors,” laments a member of the business community.

According to the September BCI survey, the share of businesses looking to increase their workforce in the next six months has halved to 11% (from 23% in August).

However, only 2% (compared to 11% in the previous month) of respondents say they plan to retrench staff during the period.

So it follows that the vast majority (87%) of those surveyed are hoping to maintain their workforce over the next six months.