‘Biz confidence index up 2 pct’

“The Business Confidence Index rose by two per cent over January. The net effect of the mix of business

environment has been perceived to be positive in the business sector,” National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) Swenior Research Fellow,Shashanka Bhide,said while releasing the survey findings.

The increase in the confidence level is the fourth successive increase in the index and therefore follows very closely to what is happening to the industrial performance,he said.

“The labour market situation is finally turning out to be more positive. Firms are very optimistic in terms of employment and wage bills. Employment is expected to increase across segments and wage rates are also expected to increase,” Bhide said.

The continued improvement in overall BCI reflects broad-based recovery in the Indian economy. But the business confidence has not been extended to the political management of economic issues. Favourable policies can further strengthen business optimism in the coming months,the survey said.

However,according to the survey,the political confidence declined by 16.48 per cent at 105.7 points this quarter as against 120.6 points during the January period.

“We had expected that the PCI will also match with the BCI over time. but we find that after the general elections last year,there has been a decline in the political confidence index,” Bhide said.

The survey was carried out in March,after the presentation of the Union Budget and its findings are based on 547 responses.