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The business outlook and consumer confidence in the country has improved during second quarter of current financial year compared to the year-ago period.
However, there is also reduced optimism on the finance and exports front, according to the Industrial Outlook Survey, July – September 2014 released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday.
The survey, the first after the formation of the new Government at the centre, showed increased optimism in percentage points ranging from less than 100 basis points to 300 basis points in production, order books, capacity utilisation and employment, among others.
For instance, the selling price expectations had improved from 12.5 to 13.3, while optimism on profit margins turned positive from -2.3 to one.
``The Business outlook of Indian manufacturing sector as inferred from movements in Business Expectation Index (BEI) showed improvement for the second quarter at 106.2 (105.2),’’ RBI said.
The increase in the composite index was due to higher optimism in capacity utilisation, imports, production and cost of raw material, it added.
But, things appear to be not moving well on key areas of finance and exports as expectations showed reduced optimism on availability of finance and exports which came down from 20.6 per cent to 19.7 per cent.
The survey was based on the response elicited from 1,225 manufacturing companies.
CONFIDENCE
The consumer confidence survey also echoes a similar sentiment. There was an improvement in consumer confidence as measured by the Current Situation Index (CSI) which rose by 4.6 percentage points over the previous quarter.
This was due to improvement in positive perception on all parameters except prices, RBI said. Interestingly, there seems to be no great expectations about future as the Future Expectations Index remained at the same level as in the last round of survey.
The survey was based on responses received from 5,200 selected individuals/households spread across six cities, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi.
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