Results of SBP’s Business Confidence Survey

October 02, 2018: In the latest wave of BCS conducted in August 2018, the overall BCI, based on 444 successful interviews, remained slightly positive at 55. This positive perception of businesses is relatively more pronounced for services sector than industry. The overall BCI has increased from 51 to 55 compared to last BCS wave conducted in June, 2018.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), in its pursuit to improve policy formulation, has been increasing its outreach to various stakeholders for their feedback for many years now.

Specifically, it obtains views of consumers, businesses and other stakeholders on current and expected economic trends in the country by directly contacting them through various surveys.

This telephonic survey targets large firms spread across the country to seek their opinions on production, employment, demand for credit and economic conditions etc.

The survey results are disseminated in the form of a composite index namely Business Confidence Index (BCI). This index measures business sentiment and is based on six parameters including current and expected economic conditions, current and expected production/sales of businesses and current and expected hiring of employees by large scale firms.

SBP, in collaboration with Institute of Business Administration (IBA), has been conducting bi-monthly Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) of more than 1600 households since 2012 and disseminating its results in the form of a Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), which are available at SBP website

The survey provides an opportunity for businesses to contribute directly to the policy formulation process by sharing their perceptions of current and future economic and business conditions.