Business confidence up: FICCI

28 Nov 2005

New Delhi: According to FICCI's second-quarter business confidence survey (BCS), India Inc is confident about an upsurge in demand-driven growth in sales, exports, employment and investment in the next six months.

According to FICCI president Onkar S Kanwar a majority 74 per cent of the respondents feel that current overall economic conditions are (moderately to substantially) better compared to the last six months. "The same proportion of the participating companies expect overall economic conditions to be 'moderately to substantially better' in the coming six months," he said.

  • The current conditions index registered a growth of 3 per cent up from 70.9 in the last survey (Q1 of 2005-06) to 73.1 in the current round.

  • The expectations index stood at 76.2 and represents an increase of nearly 2 per cent from the last round's value of 74.8.

  • The overall business confidence index went up from 73.5 in the last round to 75.2 in the current round and represents a growth of nearly 2.3 per cent.

  • 70 per cent of the of the respondents to the present round of the FICCI BCS have said that the current performance of their industry sectors has been 'moderately to substantially' better vis-a-vis the last six months.

The survey had elicited responses from 425 companies with wide geographical and sectoral spread. The turnover of the companies that participated in this survey ranged from Rs.1 crore to Rs20,000 crore. Respondents to the survey represent a wide array of activities and include sectors like pharmaceuticals, textiles, food and beverages, heavy equipment and machinery and so on.

The present round of Ficci's BCS was conducted during October 2005.