Business confidence in Pakistan has soared in 2015 as both the investments and revenues registered have surged during this period. It is revealed in the LCCI-LSE business confidence report launched on Thursday at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
LCCI President Ijaz A Mumtaz, former presidents Bashir A Baksh, Mian Muzaffar Ali, Rector Lahore School of Economics Shahid Chaudhary, Dean of Economics Faculty Dr Azam Chaudhary and LCCI executive committee members were present on the occasion.
LCCI President Ijaz A Mumtaz said that one could not find a solution to the problem until and unless correctly identified, therefore, the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry decided to conduct a detailed survey in collaboration with the Lahore School of Economics and prepared a “LCCI-LSE Business Confidence Report” after months long exercise.
The LCCI-LSE business confidence report says that “a significant number of firms in the manufacturing sector said that their export sales increased over the last year and they expected it to increase again in 2015. A majority of firms said that investment increased over the last year and the largest increase in investment in 2014 came in the manufacturing sector where around 70 per cent of firms were able to increase their investment. Across all firms, the increase in investment in 2014 was not financed by bank borrowing but by the enhanced sales revenues. More than 60 per cent firms in the manufacturing and services sectors plan to increase their investment in 2015. A significant majority of firms do not plan to utilise bank borrowing for financing their higher levels of investment in 2015. A significant proportion of manufacturing and service sector firms managed to increase their number of employees in 2014 and both these sectors seem optimistic about further increase in their employment level in 2015. There was significant optimism when firms were asked about their expectations about Pakistan’s economy, with approximately 50 per cent of the firms expecting the economy to do better in 2015. Access to finance was considered shortage of skilled labour to have a major impact on business and this proved to be a key issue for the manufacturing and services sectors.”
