CII survey: India Inc confidence index improves; turn for better foreseeable

CII survey: India Inc confidence index improves; turn for better foreseeable

A recent CII - Confederation of India Industry – survey indicates that despite the still-persistent global economic instability and slackened consumer demand, India Inc’s business confidence index for the first April-September 2009-10 fiscal has shown a 2.4 points improvement to 58.7, vis-à-vis the previous six-month period.

However, though the CII Business Confidence Index (CII-BCI) depicts ascending confidence after two periods of decline in a row, Indian economy’s turn for the better is foreseeable only in the second half of 2009-10.

Chandrajit Banerjee, the Director General of the CII commented on the increasing confidence, saying: “The rise in the index reflects better expectations for the coming six months and confirms our belief that the worst is likely to be over for the economy.”  

Moreover, for the period studied, the CII's index of expectation of Indian industry - taking into consideration a ‘three-way’ performance of company, sector and the economy - increased 4.9 points from the figures reported during the same period last year.

The CII survey, spread across 374 companies, showed that 83 percent of respondents look forward to a more than 5 percent growth in the economy during 2009-10, with the majority anticipating growth between 5 to 6 percent. At the same time, eight-six percent of the respondents expected the growth figures to be at least above 2 percent.