Business confidence in the Indian economy has marginally improved, a survey has found.
The CII 90th Business Confidence Index has shown signs of improvement during January-March 2015, with the index moving up to 56.4 from 56.2 in the previous quarter. The index was at 49.9 in the same quarter last year.
The index value of 50 is the dividing line between positive and weak confidence index.
Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said, “Business sentiment has been turning positive on the back of pro-reforms approach of the government, a stable macro-economic environment and a focus on pertinent issues such as the ‘Make in India’ campaign.”
Around 58 per cent of respondents expected sales and new orders to increase during January-March 2015, up from 53 per cent in the previous quarter.
Most (72 per cent) respondents expected current account deficit (CAD) to be less than 2.5 per cent (of GDP) in fiscal year 2015. India’s CAD stood at 1.8 per cent in the first three quarters of fiscal 2015, after it narrowed sharply to 1.7 per cent in fiscal 2014 from 4.7 per cent in fiscal year 2013.
The survey is based on responses received from over 150 industry members, of which 48 per cent belonged to large-scale sector, 17 per cent to medium scale companies and 35 per cent to small-scale firms.