The overall confidence by Nigerian firms on the macro-economy dropped to 23.2 index points, in October, indicating less optimism when compared to its level of 24.8 index points recorded in September 2018.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday released the October 2018 Business Expectations Survey (BES), which it carried out during the period October 8-12, 2018 with a sample size of 1050 businesses nationwide.
The respondent firms were made up of small, medium and large organisations covering both import- and export-oriented businesses.
However, the businesses outlook for October 2018 showed confidence on the macro economy at 64.4 index points.
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The positive outlook by type of business in October 2018 were driven by businesses that are neither import- nor export-oriented (18.6 points), import-oriented (2.4 points), both import- and export-oriented (1.9 points), and those that are export-related (0.1 points).
According to the report, the positive outlook in the volume of business activities (69.8 index points) and employment (27.5 index points) indicated a favourable business outlook in the next month. The employment outlook index by sector showed that the services sector (30.3 points) indicates the highest prospects for creating jobs, followed by wholesale/retail trade (29.9 points), industrial (24.4 points), and construction (10.3 points), sectors.
The analysis of businesses expansion plans by sector next month showed that the services sector indicates greater disposition for expansion with an index of 25.3 followed by wholesale/retail trade and industrial sectors with 17.9 and 6.5 index points respectively.
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