Nigerian businesses are showing more confidence in the macro economy as the overall Confidence Index (CI) rose to 24.5 index point in March from 14.5 index points recorded in February 2018.
The March 2018 Business Expectations Survey (BES) was carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria during the period March 12-22, 2018 with a sample size of 650 businesses nationwide. A response rate of 91..8 per cent was achieved, and the sample covered the services, industry, wholesale/retail trade and construction sectors.
The respondent firms were made up of small, medium and large organisations covering both import- and export-oriented businesses.
The optimism in the current month was driven by the opinion of respondents from services (13.9 points), industrial (7.5 points) construction (1.8 points) and wholesale/retail trade sectors (1.2), while the drivers of the optimism for next month were services (38.5 points), industrial (16.8 points), construction 4.9 points) and wholesale/retail trade (4.0 points) sectors.
The positive outlook by type of business in March 2018 was driven by businesses that are both import- and export-oriented (29.1 points), those that are neither import- nor export-oriented (25.9 points), businesses that are export-related (23.5 points), and those that are import- oriented (17.7 points).
However, the surveyed firms identified insufficient power supply (70.7 points), high interest rate (61.0 points), unfavourable economic climate (53.8 points), unclear economic laws (52.7 points), financial problems (50.5), insufficient demand (48.1 points), and unfavourable political climate (43.7 points) as the major factors constraining business activity in the current month.
Majority of the respondent firms expect the naira to appreciate in the current and next months as the confidence indices stood at 26.7 and 40.8 points, respectively.
Hope Moses-Ashike
