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The overall business sentiment in India showed an improvement with the Business Confidence Index rising to 150 during the April-June quarter from 138 in the previous quarter and higher than the corresponding period a year ago, according to the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER)-NSE survey.
The share of firms expecting ‘overall economic conditions to improve in the next six months’ went up from 65.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY2022-23―24, to 71.2 per cent in the first quarter in FY2024-25.
The majority of firms continue to expect the prospects of employment in the next six months of both skilled and unskilled or casual and permanent workers to remain the same as in the past three months, the survey revealed.
Around 32 per cent of firms said they plan to increase hiring of managerial workers in April-June of FY 2024-25, skilled workers over the next six months as against 30.6 per cent firms in the January-March period of FY 2023-24.
Approximately 50 per cent of firms expect wage rates for both managerial, skilled workers and unskilled workers to increase over the next six months, down from 58 per cent in the fourth quarter of the last financial year.
“Firms’ perception about the improvement in their own financial position is particularly noteworthy as the share of such firms was 67 percent, the highest since Q3 of 2010-11 at 76 per cent,” said NCAER’s Bornali Bhandari, who led the survey.
The survey said sentiments on external trade, both exports of final products and imports of raw material improved with a large share of firms expecting them to increase. A majority of firms expect no changes in the unit costs of electricity and labour in the next six months, signalling that costs will remain muted.
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The business confidence index is measured on prospects of four components including overall economic conditions, financial position of the firms, present investment climate and present capacity utilisation.
The survey was carried out in June, covering 497 firms spread across six cities, spread across all four regions of the country. It covered MSME and large firms.
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 "Image via Shutterstock")
