CEOs expect 9-10% economic growth in current fiscal, says CII poll

Indian economy is all set for a strong rebound in the current fiscal posting a growth rate of 9-10 per cent, says a CEOs poll conducted among the members of the CII National Council.

A large number of CEOs polled, however, appeared worried about the impact of the new COVID variant Omnicron on services and the manufacturing sector.

As regards growth, about 10 per cent of the CEOs polled believe that it could even exceed 10 per cent during 2021-22, the CII said in a release on Sunday.

Government's strong emphasis on public works, timely interventions to boost liquidity and several reforms carried out in the recent months including easing regulations, Production Linked Incentives scheme, RoDTEP and several other bold reforms have buoyed the optimism on higher economic growth," said CII President T V Narendran.

The poll is based on responses of about 100 CEOs.

On the impact of Omicron on business, 55 per cent of the CEOs polled expect that the services sector would get adversely impacted due to the spread of the new variant of coronavirus, while another 34 per cent of the CEOs indicated that it could adversely impact manufacturing activities.

According to the CEOs poll, 56 per cent of the respondents indicated that the economy would grow in the range of 9 per cent to 10 per cent during 2021-22, while another 10 per cent polled expected the growth rate in excess of 10 per cent this fiscal year, CII said.

The respondents were also upbeat on sentiments regarding their business, with 35 per cent of the CEOs indicating that the increase in revenue this year in the range of 10-20 per cent when compared to pre-COVID year (2019-20), while another 33 per cent expected a bigger jump of more than 20 per cent.

It further said that about 35 per cent of the CEOs polled expected more than 20 per cent increase in gross profits when compared to the pre Covid year, while another 17 per cent indicated an increase of 10 per cent to 20 per cent.

This optimism among the CEOs is despite more than a third of them (70 percent) observing that supply chain bottlenecks were causing problems in the movement of goods in their industry sector, the release said.

Further, given the pick-up in business activity this year, 59 per cent of the CEOs noted that capacity utilization in their companies was currently in the range of 70 per cent to 100 per cent, while 18 per cent of them felt that it could be more than 100 per cent.

Nearly a similar proportion (62 per cent) of the CEOs polled projected capital expenditure in their companies for the year 2022-23 to be up to Rs 500 crores.

Additionally, 71 per cent of the CEOs polled indicated that they did not raise resources in the Indian or global markets in the past year, while 18 per cent of them said that they had raised debt and another 11 per cent said that they raised equity in the Indian or global markets in the past year.

On expected growth in exports, 35 per cent of the CEOs polled indicated up to 20 per cent increase in exports when compared to pre Covid year 2019-20, while 24 per cent felt that it would remain the same as in FY20.

Interestingly, about 10 per cent of the CEOs indicated more than 50 per cent growth in exports in their companies in the current year when compared to the pre-COVID year 2019-20.

On the imports front, 73 per cent of the CEOs indicated that less than 10 per cent of their imported goods came from China, while another 22 per cent said that the share of their imports from China could be in the range of 10 to 25 per cent.