A majority of Pakistan’s businessmen are gaining confidence about future prospects of their endeavors, though still believe the country is not heading in the right direction, according to a survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan.
The Gallup Pakistan Business Confidence Index Q4 2024 has found that 55% of businessmen think their operations are doing “very good” or “good” in the prevailing scenario. This marks a 10% increase over their perceptions six months ago. At the same time, the number of businesses who had rated their operations as proceeding “very bad” six months ago has declined by 7%.
The report has validated prevailing economic trends, with the manufacturing sector recovering less than the services and trade sector with regards to the current business climate.
Looking forward, the business community’s optimism about the future has improved by 19% from six months back, with 60% of businesses expecting further improvement while 40% believe the situation will deteriorate.
However, a majority of them still opine that the country is not heading in the right direction, a perception that the survey report said may be reflective of the overall political situation in Pakistan and less linked with economic management.
“Reduction in inflation, macroeconomic stability and interest rate cuts contribute to large decreases in business pessimism,” read the report. “Overall trend for the past few quarters has been consistently negative, however, there has been some improvement in the current quarter,” it added.
To a question on which government had managed the economy better, 41% of businesses polled named the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), while 38% rated the government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf as better managers. The remainder 21% saw no difference in the performance of the two governments.
The most important problem that businessmen desired to see resolved by the government was inflation, which has eroded the purchasing power of consumers. “More service providing businesses than manufacturers and traders decreased their workforce,” the survey results showed.
Overall, said the report, all three strands of Gallup Business Confidence have seen an improvement since Q2 2024, showing there is growing optimism in the business community.
The survey is the 14th edition of a quarterly Business Confidence Survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan. It spanned over 30 districts of the country, surveying 482 small, medium and large businesses.