January, 6, 2020
According to the latest monthly LMD-Nielsen Business Confidence index (BCI) survey, almost two-thirds (up from less than a third in the prior month) of respondents consulted by Nielsen, for LMD’s publisher Media Services, anticipate that the economy will improve in the next 12 months.
This is the highest level of confidence in the economy since June 2009.
Meanwhile, 16% of those polled expect conditions to remain the same while one in 10 believe they will deteriorate.
One executive notes: “it’s hard to correctly anticipate where the economy is heading because the government is still new and we don’t see much profitability in our business.”
“There hasn’t been much development yet, “another businessperson states, adding: “the prominence given to the agriculture sector is still low. Tea exports are the same as some time back. And although taxes have been reduced, not much development can be seen.”
In terms of future prospect, nearly eight in 10 executives polled feel that business will improve in the New Year while a majority (70%) anticipate improvements in the short term (compared to only 43% and 36% in the previous month respectively.
And an optimistic member of the biz community explains that “the festive season is generally a busy business period for us.” In contrast however another respondent asserts: “ for our businesses to grow, the per capita income of consumers also needs to increase.”
There’s also been a majority improvement in investor sentiment with 87% of respondents viewing the climate as ‘fair’ or better versus only 31% in November.
“Taxes on businesses were reduced which is good for business and investments,” one businessperson explains while another says that “we had to defer investments because of the unstable conditions in the country on account of the presidential election.”
Meanwhile, employment prospects have declined marginally with a third (versus 35% in November) of corporates expecting to increase their workforce over the next six months.
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