LAHORE: The Gallup Business Confidence Index report says business owners have roundly criticised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over the management of the economy, as they become more pessimistic about their future because of continued political turmoil and the new tax-heavy budget.
The values were negative for all three strands as the Gallup Pakistan surveyed the owners of 454 small, medium and large businesses from more than 30 districts in the second quarter of 2024 to compile its Gallup Business Confidence Index report.
In the Index, the score for the current business situation, future business situation and direction of the country declined by four to 10 per cent, the survey reports. A significant number of businesses thought the government’s new financial plan for FY25 was not business-friendly while about two in five businesses see inflation as their biggest problem.
Like the first quarter, the price hike was the most cited problem that almost two out of five businessmen, 37 per cent, would like the government to address. Inflation, which soared to 12.6 per cent last month in June, remains backbreaking and continues to erode the purchasing power of consumers.
More than 54 per cent of Pakistan’s businesses think that the current Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government is worse than the previous government in managing the economy, according to the survey. Six out of 10 businesses surveyed said they were faced with crippling load-shedding. This quarter 16 per cent more businesses said power outages had increased due to heavy load on power infrastructure in the country in summer. Overall, 39 per cent businesses surveyed said no to load-shedding while 61 per cent said yes.
Asked how well their businesses were doing, the owners and managers said national and global challenges had made economic security a distant dream in Pakistan. Resultantly, the net current business situation score saw a fall of 16 per cent in the second quarter of 2024. The businesses appeared more pessimistic about the future as 57 per cent expressed negative expectations while only 43 per cent expect things to get better. The net future business confidence score has worsened by 36 per cent since the last quarter and is now at -14 per cent. The net direction of the country score also moved southwards to -64 per cent, worsening by four percentage points from the previous quarter as the overall trend for the past few quarters has been consistently negative. Only 18 per cent of respondents claimed that the country is heading in the right direction, the report says. A majority, 54 per cent, of businessmen said the current economic managers from the PMLN government were worse than their counterparts in the previous government in terms of economic management. Twenty-three per cent respondents from the manufacturing sector thought the current and previous governments were the same.
A sweeping majority of businessmen, 85 per cent, do not consider the government’s new financial plan as a “good budget”, the survey said. Eleven per cent of manufacturers and 15 per cent service providers said the budget was business-friendly.
Six out of 10 businesses or 60 per cent said their sales were worse this year. More manufacturers (66 per cent) reported worse sales as compared to service providers (58 percent).