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Nigeria records improved Business Confidence

By on November 13, 2014

The first Standard Chartered and MNI Business Statement Indicators (BSI) have revealed robust business confidence in Nigeria last month.
It also stated that demand and output in the country have been increasing at the fastest pace since the Standard Chartered MNI BSI series began in March.
The report for the month of October however showed that the holiday season of Eid el Kabir and Independence day celebrations in early October lifted output. However, it noted that activities are usually robust ahead of Christmas.
The report further noted that while interpretation of trends within the BSI should improve over time, there were few key observations in the economy.
Standard Chartered Bank had stated that from the end of October 2014, the bank would alongside MNI Indicators, publish monthly BSI for Kenya and Nigeria.
The bank stated: “The BSI, which provides unrivalled insight into business activity, and is expected to be a forerunner in economic analysis in each of the countries Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana inclusive, ensures that companies of varying scale and sectors respond to a consistent set of survey questions covering themes such as orders, production, interest rate fluctuations, credit availability, employment and export trends.”
It noted that the Ebola outbreak, which has since been contained in the country, “business confidence has held up and the economy appears unaffected.”
According to the report, although export orders have jumped to a series high, “the naira weakness is seen to be hurting business through higher input prices (raw material, consumables, etc) as most of them are imported.”
“Credit costs eased further, but credit availability is perceived to have worsened. Employment remains flat despite the strength in orders and output” the statement added
Standard Chartered’s Regional Head of Research for Africa, Razia Khan stressed that “adding the Nigeria Business Sentiment Indicator to our market indicators enables a broader perspective to Nigeria’s market dynamics, while enabling us to draw interesting comparisons between business perspectives from one side of the continent to the other. We look forward to analysing trends and developments over the coming months, as the series takes shape.”

 

[ThisDay]