The overall business outlook in northern region is better in the first quarter of 2011-12 compared to the previous quarter (January-March 2010-11).
However, there is high inflationary expectation persisting in the Indian economy on the back of headline inflation hovering around nine per cent.
These facts have been revealed in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Northern Region Business Outlook Survey. It is based on 87 responses from public and private sector industry in Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Sixty six per cent and 33 per cent of respondents belonged to manufacturing and services sectors, respectively. Forty eight, 33 and 20 per cent of respondents represented small, medium and large organisations, respectively.
Sixty two per cent of respondents expected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of eight per cent or more. However, in the last quarter of 2010-11, 74 per cent were expecting a growth of over eight per cent.
On Inflation, 99 per cent of the respondents expected inflation to be five per cent or more.
More From This Section
The survey also looked into the expectations on various elements that build up business confidence viz. capacity utilisation, sales, production, employment and pre-tax profit, which are all positive.
Forty seven per cent of respondents expected increased investments during the current quarter. Capacity utilisation is expected to increase.
Sixty four per cent of respondents expected increase in sales. The expected increase in production is supported by expected increase in production, employment and pre-tax profits. However, 72 per cent of respondents expected an increase in raw material cost.
Fifty five per cent of respondents expected increase in exports compared to only 40 per cent during the previous quarter.
The survey enquired about the present status of various components of physical infrastructure in northern region. Majority of respondents had rated infrastructure facilities like telecom, internet/broadband, postal/courier and warehouse as good or satisfactory. However, on other elements of physical infrastructure, respondents felt that their condition in the region was inadequate and needed improvement.