As a matter of concern, survey conducted by economic think tank National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has showed that business sentiment in the country fell sharply in the March quarter due to concerns over investment climate amid patchy and uneven growth in 2014-15. The 92nd round of Business Expectations Survey (BES) carried out in March 2015 revealed that Business Confidence Index (BCI) decreased by 6.9% over the previous quarter. Notably, all components of BCI (Business Confidence Index) declined between January and April.
As per the survey, all sectors, barring consumer durables registered a drop in BCI over the last quarter, with services showing the largest fall of 13.6%, followed by capital goods at 13.1%. However, consumer durables sector registered a marginal rise of 0.8% over the previous quarter.
BCI of Rs 100 to 500 crore firms declined the most at 9.2%, followed by a decline of 8.6% for BCI of firms less than Rs 1 crore. However, BCI of group of Rs 10-100 crore firms grew by 0.4%.
Further while, the sentiments regarding production, domestic sales, exports, imports of raw materials and pre-tax profits were mixed that regarding sales and exports was subdued -- with larger firms not expecting an increase in either -- sentiments regarding production was discouraging. The survey also pointed that trend of a continuous rise in the Political Confidence Index (PCI) was reversed in April when PCI fell 8.9% over the last quarter.