Dun & Bradstreet - world's oldest database and risk management company which has recently started its operations in Pakistan, has launched its 'Business Optimism Index' for the Pakistan according to which businesses in the country are overall optimistic about their outlook for the first quarter of fiscal year 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.
Nauman Lakhani, Country Head of Dun & Bradstreet in Pakistan, at the launch of the Index said at a press briefing here said, 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. 66% of the respondents expect business situation to be good in the upcoming quarter compared to 42% of respondents in the current quarter. 9% of the respondents expect their business situation to be poor in the upcoming quarter, compared to 16% 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). 40 percent of respondents also reported other factors to be major challenges amongst which exchange rate fluctuation (7percent), political instability (6 percent) and economic slowdown (3 percent) were most prominent.
The survey elicits responses from as many as 400 businesses in Pakistan, to understand their current performance and business expectation for five key parameters, i.e. Sales Revenue, Selling Price, Volumes Sold, Number of Employees, and Profits. Businesses are relatively more optimistic for all the parameters, except Selling Prices for the upcoming quarter (Q1, 2020).