Business confidence has declined to a record low in the first quarter of 2014, the first time in the past 4 years.
This is according to the Business barometer report by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI).
The business barometer report measures the level of confidence in the business environment and predicts short-term business trend.
The first quarter of the year recorded a decline in the confidence index to a little above 90.
This is a shortfall from the base index of a hundred.
The index dropped from the 102 recorded the last quarter of 2013.
The last time the confidence was this low was in the second quarter of 2010.
The AGI indicates the confidence has from the first quarter of last year been dropping except for the third quarter where there was additional power to the national grid and election petition at the Supreme Court ended.
The construction sector recorded the lowest confidence level having recorded an index of 81 points.
This was attributed to delays in payment for jobs done by contractors.
1 out of 3 CEOs of companies interviewed said the business confidence in this year’s first quarter had worsened.
They attributed this to a spillover of the challenges faced from last year.
They also said the current economic situation poses a serious threat to the long term viability of businesses if this situation persists.
About 19percent however concurred the situation had improved while the rest were indifferent about the situation.
Many of the captains of industry have painted a gloomy picture of the next 6 months of the year.
About 61percent say they do not expect the situation to improve, while about 39percent of them said otherwise.
With employment expectations, only about 22percent of the CEOs expressed confidence that employment will improve in the next six months.
About 64percent indicated the levels will remain the same while about 15 percent indicted the level will fall.
The Barometer report highlighted the impact of the Bank of Ghana’s foreign exchange rules on businesses.
Just about 5 percent of them indicated the rules had favored businesses.
About 43percent said the rules had no effect on them while a whopping 52 percent of the CEOs said the new rules had not favored Ghanaian businesses.
By: Anim Kwaku Boadu/citifmonline.com/Ghana