Business Confidence Index hit a record low in Q1 since 1992, says NCAER

The Business Confidence Index (BCI) fell to an all-time low since 1992, as it dropped to 46.4 points in the June Quarter, according to the results of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) survey.

The business sentiment across the industry stooped 40.1 percent from the quarter ended March of the fiscal year, the survey showed.

“The latest, 113th Round of the Business Expectations Survey (BES), was carried out in June 2020, when the country had started slowly opening up after more than two months of lockdown imposed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, following which the spread of the disease accelerated. This is the lowest that the BCI has ever fallen in the 113 rounds of the NCAER BES," NCAER said.

The business sector was already battling an economic slowdown, and the coronavirus pandemic further cracked the system leading to a 62 percent decline since last year.

The survey measured employment trends and firms reported a 6.7 percent decline in the employment of unskilled labour over Q4 of FY20. There is a 46 percent jump during Q1 of the current fiscal year.

The figure for skilled labour stood at 18.2 percent for the June quarter of FY21 compared to 4.3 percent in the previous quarter.

The quarterly BES surveys 600 companies from six cities including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai