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High input costs, lack of reforms hit India Inc
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Top Stories |
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SME Times News Bureau | 13 Aug, 2012
Most in India Inc. expect stagnancy or decline in their business
activities in July-September period due to high cost of borrowings,
unfavourable macro-economic condition and the government's inability to
push forward the reforms process, a survey revealed.
According to
a business outlook survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), majority of business houses witnessed stagnancy in their
overall sales, new orders, value of production, inventory levels and
employment in the first quarter of 2012-13 financial year.
For
the second quarter of the current financial year, the business
confidence has declined further, indicating that the situation is likely
to worsen further.
CII Business Confidence Index for
July-September 2012 fell by 3.7 points to 51.3, after rising to 55, in
April-June 2012 from 52.9 in the previous quarter.
"The falling
index value is reflective of low business sentiments that has been
prevailing for the last few quarters," Chandrajit Banerjee, director
general, CII, said in a report.
The survey revealed that
stagnancy in reforms is the top concern of most firms, followed by
slackening consumer demand and high interest rates.
Rising input
costs continue to be a major worry for firms. Majority of the firms
recorded an increase in raw material costs, electricity and fuel cost
and cost of wages and salaries during April-June period as compared to
the previous quarter.
Expectations for the quarter ending
September 2012 show that a majority of firms still expect these costs to
increase though the proportion of respondents expecting an increase is
lower than in the first quarter.
Almost all firms reported
either an increase or no change in the cost of credit and a majority
continue to expect no change in the second quarter.
Reflecting the grim domestic policy scenario, investment sentiments have weakened considerably.
However,
on a positive note, the survey showed that 56.1 percent of the
respondents expect domestic investments of their companies to rise in
the second-quarter of 2012-13 compared to the first quarter, while 39.5
percent expect it to show a decline or no change.
Over 42
percent expect international investments to show a decline or no change
in July-September quarter, while 34.7 percent of respondents expect it
to record any increase.
Majority 88.9 percent of the respondents
said that infrastructural bottlenecks and lack of policy reforms were
responsible for holding back domestic investments.
The survey
also showed that in the first quarter of 2012-13, 42.8 percent firms had
capacity utilisation between 75-100 percent.
In a sign of
improving capacity utilisation, a higher percentage of 57.2 percent
expect it to remain above 75 percent in the second-quarter of the
current fiscal.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
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66.20
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64.50 |
UK Pound
|
87.50
|
84.65 |
Euro
|
78.25
|
75.65 |
Japanese
Yen |
58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
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