‘Business Optimism Index’ launched: Business optimistic on situation to improve

‘Business Optimism Index’ launched: Business optimistic on situation to improve

KARACHI: Dun & Bradstreet has launched its World Renowned ‘Business Optimism Index’ for Pakistan according to which Businesses in Pakistan are overall optimistic about their outlook for Q1, 2020.

The composite Business Optimism Score stands at 144.6 points compared to a benchmark neutral value of 100 points.

As per the report, Large Companies are relatively more optimistic than Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), as the composite score for large companies stands at 149.5 points compared to 137.3 points for SMEs. Additionally, companies in the Services Sector are more optimistic than Trading and Manufacturing Sectors.

Dun & Bradstreet’s ‘Business Optimism Index’ was initiated in the early 1900’s has now made its way to Pakistan. This report will be published every quarter and aims to measure the pulse of the business community, and serve as a tool to assess the business outlook in Pakistan.

The responses for the business situation reflect respondents’ outlook in regards to the current business situation (Q4, 2019) and forecast business situation (Q1, 2020).

Based on the results, respondents are more optimistic with respect to forecast business situation vis-a-vis to the current business situation. About 66 percent of the respondents expect business situation to be good in the upcoming quarter compared to 42 percent of respondents in the current quarter.

About 9 percent of the respondents expect their business situation to be poor in the upcoming quarter, compared to 16 percent in the current quarter which is a positive indicator for businesses.

Key business challenges highlight issues perceived by businesses at the end of Q4, 2019 that have impacted near term business growth and development.

According to the results, 42 percent of the respondents consider Government fees / taxes as one of the major challenges followed by competition (34 percent), and unfavorable business regulations (30 percent).

About 40 percent of respondents also reported other factors to be major challenges amongst which exchange rate fluctuation (7 percent), political instability (6 percent) and economic slowdown (3 percent) were most prominent.