Although the country’s authorities stepped up coronavirus(covid-19) lockdown easing measures during the period, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) June 2020 Business Expectations Survey (BES) report indicates that respondent firms expressed pessimism on the macro economy.
The BES report, which was released by the apex bank yesterday, also shows that the firms’ outlook on the volume of total order, financial conditions (working capital), access to credit and average capacity utilisation all remained negative during the review period. They were, however, optimistic in their outlook for next month.
According to the CBN, “at -24.3 index points, the overall Confidence Index (CI) indicated respondents’ pessimism on the overall macro economy in the month of June. Respondents are optimistic in their outlook for July with a confidence index of 31.8. Furthermore, they expressed optimism in the overall business outlook in August and December 2020 as shown in a greater confidence of the economy, at 47.4 and 67.8 index points, respectively.
“The pessimism on the macro economy in the current month was driven by the opinion of respondents from agric/services (-13.9 points), manufacturing (-7.5 points), construction (-1.8 point) and wholesale/retail trade sectors (-1.1 point).
The major drivers of optimism for next month were agric/services (18.8 points), manufacturing (8.8 points), wholesale/Retail (2.8 points) and construction (1.4 point).
