Pakistan business confidence falls

LAHORE: Pakistan has lowered down by 14.4 points on Institute of Management Account (IMA) Global Economic Confidence Survey (GECS) in the Q2 of 2021, while the world has reported a buoyant return to economic stability.

According to the latest edition of the (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) ACCA and IMA Global Economic Confidence Survey (GECS), the confidence index of Pakistan has dropped between Q1 and Q2 2021 from 31.8 to 17.4 due to rising Covid infections, raising fears of restrictions that would hurt domestic activity. In addition, there is a slow rate of vaccination throughout South Asia.

Orders have also declined in Pakistan from 9.1 in Q1 to -17.4 in Q2. This is reflected across other South Asia markets, the only region to record a fall in orders in this survey, albeit a modest one.

Sajjeed Aslam, head of ACCA Pakistan, said, “Looking ahead, health and economic risks are considerable, especially if a vaccine resistant variant emerges and spreads, forcing renewed lockdown measures with consequent economic harm.

On the global and national level, policy-wise it’s important that fiscal support is not withdrawn prematurely, potentially causing a setback to recovery in private demand.”

Professional accountants serving at leading organisations from around the world, who are members of ACCA and IMA, report an upturn in key global activity indicators, such as orders – the proxy for real economic activity.

The biggest gain in Q2 came in North America, powered ahead by a massive US fiscal stimulus.

The two ‘fear’ indices, measured by concerns that customers and suppliers may go out of business, both declined in this latest survey, confirming that the extreme uncertainty created by the Covid-19 crisis has fallen back towards more normal levels.