- The survey notes a significant reduction in pessimism among companies.
- 55% of companies satisfied with their current commercial performance.
- 38% considered the current government as worse than its predecessor.
Demonstrating a constant recovery of feeling, the morale of companies among stakeholders has improved considerably, accompanied by an optimistic economic perspective, an investigation by Gallup Pakistan showed it on Tuesday, while the country seeks to define its trajectory growth on races thanks to difficult reforms.
The economy increased by 0.92% in the first quarter of the year 2024-25, despite a contraction in the industrial sector, according to data published by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) last month.
A survey of business owners in the fourth quarter of 2024 – as part of the Gallup Business Confidence Index (BCI) report – revealed a significant reduction in pessimism among the companies on how they perceive their current perspectives as well as management global country.
Almost 55% of the companies questioned were satisfied with their current commercial performance, while 61% were optimistic about the future.
On political prospects, 41% of the companies questioned have estimated that the Pakistani government of the Muslim-Nawaz League (PML-N) had performed better than the previous government Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI), while 21% considered both Governments.
However, 38% considered the current government as worse than its predecessor.
This is the fourteenth edition of Gallup Pakistan’s Quarterly Confidence Survey. The commercial confidence index (BCI) serves as a key gauge for feelings within the business world and is widely used by decision -makers of the world.
The surveyors have selected 482 medium and large companies of more than 30 districts of Pakistan in different sectors and domains, according to their share in the national economy.
About 55% of the companies questioned say well (very good or good), marking an improvement of 10% compared to the second quarter of last year.
In addition, the survey noted a 7% decrease in companies that qualified their situation as “very bad” – the manufacturing sector has shown a slower recovery compared to services and trade.
Compared to the second quarter, 19% of other companies in the fourth quarter of 2024 think that their business will be better on the road.
The survey showed that 61% was optimistic about their growth in the future, while 40% expected things to get worse. However, the Net score of Future Business Confidence jumped 36% compared to the second quarter.
During the period examined, around 20% fewer companies think that the country is heading in the wrong direction. The overall trend of the last quarters has always been negative; However, there has been some improvement during the current quarter.
Similar in the second quarter of 2024, inflation is the most cited problem in the fourth quarter that 30% of companies would like the government to resolve. The proportion of companies that want the government to resolve or decrease taxation has increased from 20% to 14%.
The consumer inflation rate has dropped to its lowest for over nine years, falling to 2.4% in annual shift in January, the statistics office announced on Monday.
Inflation was considerably cooled, going from 28.3% in January 2024. Consumer prices in January increased by 0.2% compared to the previous month, according to the PBS.
According to the survey, 33% of companies said that their workforce had decreased in the fourth quarter by 10% compared to the second quarter. More companies provide services than manufacturers and merchants have dismissed their workforce.
During the quarter under examination, 56% of companies said “no” load loading on the day of the survey, while 44%. Gallup noted that 17% of companies minus in the fourth quarter declared loading of loading on the day of the survey (the second quarter covered in summer months and the fourth, winter, and the results are in line with expectations ).
About 34% of companies said they had to pay bribes to manage their business in the past six months. More merchants said they had to pay money at speed (50%) than manufacturers (35%) and service providers (33%).
Finally, the majority (51%) of business owners interviewed did not consider themselves risk takers, while around half (49%) described their business as at least somewhat risks.
The South Asian country sails in a difficult economic recovery path and was supported by an installation of $ 7 billion in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September.