Business confidence in economy rises

Express Tribune

17-02-2025

LAHORE:
Pakistani businessmen are gaining confidence about the prospects of their businesses that they believe are improving, shows a latest survey.
However, a majority of them are still of the opinion that the country is not heading in the right direction, a perception that, according to the survey report, may be reflective of the overall political situation in Pakistan and less linked with economic management.
According to the Gallup Pakistan Business Confidence Index Q4 2024 survey report, 55% of businessmen think of their businesses doing very good or good these days.
This shows a 10% increase in their perception over the previous survey conducted about six months ago in the second quarter of 2024. The fieldwork did not happen in the third quarter.
The number of businesses which used to rate themselves as very bad declined 7%.
The manufacturing sector seems to have recovered less than the services and trade sectors when it comes to rating the current business situation, the report said.
About the future, the business community is more optimistic as their score has risen 19% from six months ago. Some 60% businesses in the Q4 survey showed positive expectations about their future while 40% expected things to worsen.
The Net Future Business Confidence score has increased 36% since the second quarter of 2024.
"Reduction in inflation, macroeconomic stability and interest rate cuts contribute to a large decrease in business pessimism," the survey report mentioned.
The number of such businesses fell 20% from the previous survey as the index improved from negative confidence to poor confidence, as defined by Gallup in its methodology.
"Overall trend for the past few quarters has been consistently negative, however, there is some improvement in the current quarter," the report said.
Responding to a question about which government managed the economy well, 41% of the businesses surveyed named the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) while 38% rated the administration of former prime minister Imran Khan as better managers. Twenty-one per cent saw no difference in the performance of the two governments.
The backbreaking inflation, which erodes the purchasing power of consumers, was cited as the most critical problem, which 30% of businessmen wanted the government to resolve.
"More service-providing businesses than manufacturers and traders reduced their workforce," the survey results showed.
Overall, the report said, all the three strands of the Gallup Business Confidence had seen an improvement since the second quarter of 2024, showing that there was growing optimism in the business community.
The latest survey is the 14th edition of the quarterly Business Confidence Survey conducted in more than 30 districts of the country, covering 482 small, medium and large businesses.