Skip to main content

Businesses in India appear to be 'crawling back' to normalcy, says IIM-A survey

By A Representative
An Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) survey has said that while businesses in India appear to be crawling back to normalcy, around 85% of the firms still believe that sales are “somewhat or much less than normal”, while over 83% of the firms expect “much less than normal or somewhat less than normal” profit margins.
The survey, based on the responses of around 1,300 companies in July 2020, shows that in the previous survey, carried out in June soon after the lockdown came to an end, over 86% firms reported “much less than normal or somewhat less than normal” profit margins. 
It also finds that roughly one-third of the firms still expect significant (over 6%) cost increase as compared to the same time last year, though “this proportion has been gradually declining after March 2020.” It adds, “Around 53% of the firms now believe that the current cost increase is 3.1% and above as compared to the same time last year – down from 58% reported in June 2020.” 
Called Business Inflation Expectations Survey (BIES) and carried out under Prof Abhiman Das since May 2017, the survey claims to provide ways to examine the amount of slack in the economy by polling a panel of business leaders about their inflation expectations in the short and medium term. 
The survey seeks to get a probabilistic assessment of inflation expectations and thus get a measure of uncertainty, even as providing an indirect assessment of overall demand condition of the economy. Business inflation expectations in July 2020 declined sharply to 3.70% from 4.12% reported in June 2020. “After running over 4% since March 2020, business inflation expectations fell below 4% in July 2020”, it says.

Comments

Post a Comment

NOTE: Hateful, abusive comments won't be published. -- Editor

TRENDING

Gujarat Sachivalaya blacklists, denies entry to woman social activist: Will NHRC probe?

By Kantilal Parmar*  I have approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into a serious incident that took place at the Gujarat Secretariat in Gandhinagar on August 18, 2026. The matter concerns social activist and women’s rights leader Chandrikaben Solanki, who, according to the information available to me, was denied an entry pass to the Secretariat when she went there to meet Gujarat’s Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Dr. Manishaben Vakil, to raise an issue concerning social justice.
Post a Comment
»

Tibetan activist’s self-immolation sparks fresh concerns over cultural rights

By Kumar Krishnan*  The question of Tibet has once again entered international discourse, raising difficult questions about human rights, religious freedom, cultural identity, language, and the relationship between political power and the rights of indigenous communities. On 20 August 2026, the Kashag and the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile jointly organised a solidarity prayer service and peace march to mark the 49th day since the death of Lobga Rangzen, a Tibetan activist who died after self-immolating on 2 July in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Post a Comment
»

IMF's policies 'stabilise' external creditors' balance sheets, 'generate' crisis in Africa

By Grieve Chelwa, Vijay Prashad   Across Africa, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) presents itself as the custodian of macroeconomic stability. Its latest Article IV staff reports on Ethiopia . Malawi , Nigeria , South Africa , and Zambia are written for economies with very different histories and institutions. Yet they converge on a familiar prescription: fiscal consolidation, tighter monetary policy, market-determined exchange rates, subsidy reform, deregulation and ‘private-sector-led growth’. No serious economist can dismiss macroeconomic stability.
Post a Comment
»