Firms reporting ‘somewhat less than normal’ sales sharply increase to 33%: IIM-A report

By A Representative

The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad's (IIM-A's) Business Inflation Expectations Survey (BIES),which seeks to provide ways to examine the amount of slack in the economy by polling a panel of business leaders, has said that the cost perceptions data "clearly indicates moderation in cost pressures."

"The percentage of firms perceiving over 10% cost increase y-o-y has further declined. Over 19% of the firms in October 2022 round of the survey perceive that costs have increased very significantly (over 10%) – down from 21% recorded in September 2022", the survey noted.

It added, "With moderation in cost pressures, profit margins expectations have improved sharply. Over 26% of the participating firms in October 2022 perceive profit margins are ‘somewhat or much greater than normal’ – significantly up from 5% reported in September 2022."
Based on the responses of over 1,000 companies, the report, however, regrets, "Firms’ sales expectations are seen to have subdued. Percentage of firms reporting ‘somewhat less than normal’ sales has sharply increased to 33% in October 2022, from 24% reported in September 2022. Around 25% of the firms in October 2022 report that sales are ‘about normal’, down from 27% reported in September 2022."

Claiming to be a unique survey in that it goes straight to businesses -- the price setters -- rather than to consumers or households, to understand their expectations of the price level changes, and conducted every month at the Misra Centre for Financial Markets and Economy, IIM-A, the report said, "One year ahead business inflation expectations have remained unchanged around 4.76% during September-October 2022.
"The uncertainty of business inflation expectations in October 2022, as captured by the square root of the average variance of the individual probability distribution of unit cost increase, has further increased to 2.16%", it added.

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