The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) shared the results of its comprehensive Business Confidence Index (BCI) Survey – Wave 20, conducted throughout the country during May to July 2021, which revealed that the overall Business Confidence Score (BCS) in Pakistan now stands at positive score of 9 percent, a record improvement by 59 percentage points from the previous negative 50 percent score in Wave 19 Survey conducted in May 2020. It may be noted that a positive BCI was last seen during Wave 16 conducted in April 2018, reports Business Recorder.
The OICCI BCI Survey, conducted periodically, is a comprehensive feedback from frontline business stakeholders of their views on the environment and opportunities impacting their respective business operations.
The feedback covers business environment at regional, national, sectoral, and own business entity levels in the past six months, as well as the anticipated business and investment environment in the next six months. This survey is done face to face, across the country in nine cities, covering 80% of the GDP, with higher weightage given to key business centers of Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi-Islamabad, and Faisalabad. The survey sample consisted of 40 percent respondents from Manufacturing sector, 35 percent from the Services sector and 25 percent from the retailers/wholesalers.
The confidence of the business community across Pakistan shifting over from negative territory in last survey to positive territory is driven by all the three segments, manufacturing, services, as well as the retail/wholesale sectors, with the first two recording an increase of 65 percent each, (manufacturing from negative 48 percent to positive 17 percent and services from negative 59 percent to positive 6 percent) whilst the retail/wholesale sector went up by 44 percent (from negative 44 percent to Zero percent).
As lockdown restrictions have been lifted many of the manufacturing concerns have gone back to their 100 percent capacity of production and are able to sell their product even during the lockdowns, which positively impacts all business sectors. Retailer and Wholesalers were largely affected by the Covid – 19 restrictions as their business hours were cut short resulting income, cash flow and other issues. This segment also believes that the next 6 months will fare better with more sales, profits, and better situation overall for Pakistan.
Commenting on the improved BCS, Irfan Siddiqui, President OICCI, observed “the results of BCI Survey suggests a very dramatic turnaround in the confidence of businesses, including foreign investors. Despite challenging macro-economic indicators like the high exchange rate, accelerated inflation, partially offset by reduced bank interest rate, the Wave 20 BCI feedback strongly reflects optimism of the business community moving forward, contrary to the pessimism in the previous Wave 19.
