Survey shows 2019 year of endurance for Japanese companies in Pakistan

In August and September 2019, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) conducted its annual survey of business conditions of Japanese companies operating in Asia / Oceania. The Survey includes results from 19 countries and regions.

The results of this survey have been recently published indicate that Japanese companies operating in Pakistan continue to face issues such as the depreciation of the currency in the Pakistan rupee and rising procurement costs.

The online survey covers a wide range of business activities related questions including operating profits, future business plans, management and procurement related, trade environment, imports exports productivity, innovation, wages and other.

According to the survey almost 69 percent of the respondent companies expected to achieve operating profits in 2019, however, when compared with 2018 the percent of respondents that expected increase in operating profits In 2019 was only 25 percent (among the lowest group), reflecting that the year 2019 has been showing a challenging economic situation for the Japanese companies. One of the major reasons for such decline was said to be reduction of sales in domestic market.

Until the middle of 2018, Pakistan's economy was performing well, Pakistan's economic growth began to slow down around mid-2018, and has since weakened. The Diffusion Index (Dl) that measures changes in business confidence was lowered to a negative 19 points for 2019, but it was higher to a positive 25 points for 2020.-PR