India Inc optimistic about performance of economy: Survey

A large part of India Inc is getting increasingly optimistic about performance of the economy in the coming six months, a survey has said.

This is leading to higher sales and profitability on the back of an uptick in the company order-book and capacity utilisation, the latest business confidence survey by Assocham added.

The optimism is reflected both at the levels of firms and the industry, for the April-September period, even though the feel good is yet to convert into increased appetite for fresh investment and better employment opportunities, it said.

As many as 57.1%, across different industry segments, shared a sense of optimism about the economy for the next months, the survey said.

At least 66.7% respondents feel for the immediate April-June 2016 quarter sales value would pick up. Similarly, there would be an improvement in the profitability as well.

“Since the industry has been operating much below its capacity for a long period, there would still be a lag for fresh investment while a pickup in increased employment would still be away,” the survey said.

The flipside of the survey is that a large part of India Inc still feels that the present state of the economy and its undercurrent have not changed much qualitatively, as compared with the previous six months. This is true in the case of profitability at the industry and firm level.