The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) latest Business Expectations Survey (BES), which was carried out between the period of August 12-16, 2024, indicates that firms were optimistic about the country’s overall business outlook in August and also for the next five months.
According to the August 2024 BES report, which was posted on the apex bank’s website on Tuesday, the positive outlook in the volume of business activities of the firms in September, “implied improved prospects for employment in the same period.”
The report said: “The overall confidence index (CI) at 0.9 index points indicates that respondent firms expressed optimism on the macroeconomy as they expect business conditions to improve in the review period. The index improved by 0.8 points compared with what was obtained in the previous month.
“The optimism in August 2024 is driven by the opinion of respondents from the Mining, Quarrying, Electricity, Gas & Water Supply (30.4 points), Agriculture (5.2 points) and NonMarket Services (2.7 points).
“Similarly, the outlook for next month, the next three months, and the next six months all indicated optimism with indices of 11.1, 23.1 and 34.2 points, respectively.
The expected drivers for the optimism on the macroeconomy in the next month are Mining, Quarrying, Electricity, Gas & Water Supply (34.8 points), Non-Market Services (12.8 points), Market Services (12.4 points), Agriculture 11.7 points), and Manufacturing (7.7 points).”
Also, the report said that the optimism of firms on the overall business outlook by type of business in August was driven by businesses that are “exporter” (17.7 points), “both importer and exporter”, (4.6 points) and “importer” (4.3 points).
According to the report, the drivers of the optimism on the macroeconomy in August by size of business were the medium and small firms with indices of 3.4 and 2.4 points, respectively.
Furthermore, the report stated: “Respondents expressed optimism regarding the Volume of Business Activities and Employment Outlook for September 2024, with indices recorded at 18.3 and 7.7 points, respectively.
The positive Business Activity Index and the Employment Index point to the possibility of job growth during the review month. It is projected that this encouraging trend will support economic stability and increase job possibilities in a variety of industries.”
