ISLAMABAD: According to latest report of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Business Confidence Survey (BCS) conducted by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), the overall business confidence in February 2019 improved to green zone, which shows predominance of optimistic views of business community about the economy.
According the report, this positive perception of businesses is slightly more pronounced for industry but can be witnessed for both industry and services sectors of the economy. In case of industry, the overall business confidence index has increased from 47 in December 2018 to 53 in February 2019; while that for services has increased from 49 to 52 in the same period.
The report also indicated that the current employment diffusion indices have turned positive for services and overall both sector firms, while for industry, it remained the same. The outlook for expected employment is improved as well. It has significantly improved for both the industry and the services sector firms between December 2018 and February 2019, the report shows.
However, the report said that the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) has decreased marginally in February 2019 to 51 from the previous level of 52, adding that this decrease was mainly caused by the decline in business activities over the past six months as reported by surveyed firms. However, it is still in the green zone reflecting rather positive impressions of business activity of the responding firms over the last six months.
Meanwhile, Spokesperson and Advisor to Finance Minister Dr. Khaqan Hassan Najeeb said that the overall business confidence in the country was turning positive as indicated by the IBA survey. He said in a tweet, that the survey which measured perception of business community and economic conditions, confirms government’s economic measures were gaining traction.
