Business confidence level in economy up — AGI report
The third quarter business barometer report of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) indicates that confidence level of businesses in the country’s economy has increased slightly.
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It was the first time in the last one-and-half years that the business confidence level has gone above the 100 baseline mark of the business confidence index (the measuring mechanism for business confidence).
The Chief Executive Officer of the AGI, Mr Seth Twum-Akwaboah, presented the findings of the report at the annual general meeting of the Accra branch of the AGI yesterday.
The survey focused on the current performance of businesses and their expectations for the fourth quarter.
A total of 456 business executives from the manufacturing, services and construction sectors across the country were interviewed.
The report indicated that 40 per cent of the business executives said their current performance was better than that of the second quarter, 39 per cent said their performance was the same while 21 per cent said their performance was worse.
On their expectations, 60 per cent said they expected improvement in the fourth quarter, 33 per cent said they expected the business situation to remain the same while seven per cent expected that the business condition would be worse.
Mr Twum-Akwaboah said the slight increase in the confidence level was due to a little improvement in the power situation and the slight stability of the cedi.
The report said 60 per cent of the business managers said they would maintain their staff strength in the fourth quarter, 27 per cent said they would increase employment while 13 per cent said they would reduce the number of employees.
Challenges
The report mentioned exchange rate volatility as the main challenge facing industries followed by inadequate power supply.
Multiplicity of taxes, difficulty in getting access to credit and the high cost of credit were the other challenges.