Economic sentiment remains steady – Survey

Monday, 14 October 2019 00:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The latest LMD-Nielsen Business Confidence (BCI) poll reveals that sentiment surrounding the economy remained largely unchanged in September with 25% (versus 24% in the previous month) of respondents expecting conditions to improve in the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, 29% of those consulted feel that economic conditions will remain the same while 46% expect conditions to deteriorate over the same period.

A corporate executive remarks: “We hope that the economy will improve after the upcoming election. At present, the country is quite unstable and proper economic policies are not in place.” As for business prospects, a larger share (nearly a third) of survey respondents feel that sales volumes will improve in the long term compared to the 24% who anticipate better times in the next three months.

“The impact of the Easter Sunday attacks is slowly taking a turn for the better. And the tourism industry appears to be gradually attracting more business,” one businessperson observes.

Sentiment surrounding the investment climate remains muted as 72% (compared to 70% in August) of poll participants consider this to be a bad time to invest, whereas a mere five percent view prevailing conditions positively.

LMD’s Cover Story features an exclusive interview with Sri Lanka-born American entrepreneur and investor Insaaf Mohideen, who is based in Silicon Valley, in which he discusses the state of the nation, Sri Lanka’s ICT industry and the startup culture (for the full story, log onto www.LMD.lk).