Business confidence among captains of industry in Ghana in the second quarter of 2015 went up marginally, from 85,0 in the first quarter to 87.9.
Business leaders however are still pessimistic about the future because of the current economic conditions which have seen a weak currency, unending energy crisis and a multiplicity of taxes.
[contextly_sidebar id=”8vp20wsccpUGLml2ukWiBBPa7pMi2KsU”]Though confidence level was on the rise, the AGI still says business confidence can be better than the 87.90 bases points below the benchmark level of 100 points.
39% of captains of industries interviewed said the business environment had worsened while 20% said it had improved.
However about 42% expect business performance to improve in third quarter of 2015 while 14% believed business performance will worsen.
A 71% of captains of industry interviewed according to the barometer report said they were not in favour of the fuel price deregulation as a result of the very frequent review of fuel prices by the oil marketing companies. However 29% were in favour of the policy.
75% of those interviewed said they did not foresee the cedi stabilizing within the next three months being the third quarter while 25% were more optimistic and anticipated a recovery of the cedi over the next three months. On employment, majority of industry captains are not optimistic of expanding their workforce.
As many as 60% indicate they will not employ, 21% said they will increase their labour force, while about 19% also indicated they will cut down on labour if the power situation does not change.
In the first quarter inadequate power supply ranked the number 1 challenge by captains of industry followed by exchange rate volatility and Depreciation of the cedi.
But in the second quarter exchange rate volatility and Depreciation of the cedi ranked first followed by inadequate power supply.
Multiplicity of taxes followed while access to credit was ranked the 4th biggest challenge to businesses in Ghana while and Cost of credit was rated the 5th biggest challenge facing industry.
With the exchange rate volatility and Depreciation being the top most challenge of AGI President of the AGI, James Asare Agyei expressed serious concern over the dramatic exchange rate volatility and macro economic situation in the country in the last three months.
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By: Norvan Acquah-Haford/citifmonline.com/Ghana