Business Confidence of Indian firms improves marginally: CII Survey

30 Apr 2012 Evaluate

Business Confidence of Indian firms have improved marginally in the April-June quarter as compared to the previous Jan-March quarter in 2012. However, businesses remain concerned over stagnant reforms and rising cost of finance and raw materials.

The CII Business Confidence Index for the first quarter of the current fiscal (April-June) stood at 55, as against 52.9 in the last quarter of 2011-12. The reading, however, is lower than the 62.5 for the first quarter of the previous fiscal.

The survey has further revealed that most of the respondents expect GDP growth in 2012-13 to be in the range of 7.0-7.5%, while a few expect it to be higher than 7.5%. Views on inflation remain divergent but all respondents expect it to be in the range of 7-9%. Domestic investments are expected to rise by most respondents (47.2%) and so are international investments. Capacity ulilisation is also expected to improve.

Rising input costs continues to be a major worry for firms. Majority of the firms recorded an increase in electricity/fuel cost and cost of wages and salaries during January-March 2012, while the cost of credit either increased or remained the same as the previous quarter. Expectations for the quarter ending June 2012 show that a majority of firms expect electricity/fuel cost and cost of wages and salaries to increase, while cost of credit is expected to either decline or remain unchanged.

The survey also revealed that stagnancy in reforms is the top concern of most firms, followed by high interest rates and high raw material cost and hence the implementation of a few key reforms in the areas of indirect taxation, pricing of administered products and increasing FDI limits can go a long way in raising business confidence and improving the growth outlook for the economy. This is 79th Business Outlook Survey and is based on a sample size of 200 companies.

 

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