Karachi February 9 2022: Pakistan BOI Q4, 2021 declined, after exhibiting an increasing trend consecutively for the last three quarters, as per report published by D&B.
The BOI stands at 143.9 points vis-a-vis 154.2 in Q3, 2021, indicating a decrease of 6.7% q-o-q. However, the BOI has improved by 7.9% compared to the same period last year (Q4, 2020).
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The decline in optimism is driven by the overall downtrend in the macroeconomic indicators. High inflation rate of 12.3% in December 2021, the widening of the current account deficit by ~57.9%, increased policy rates from 7.25% to 9.75%, depleting foreign exchange reserves from PKR 25.6 Bn to PKR 24.0 Bn and depreciation of the PKR against USD by ~4.5% during Q4, 2021 (October 2021 – December 2021), may have affected the business community and impacted their business outlook.
Large companies’ BOI decreased to 146.2 in Q4, 2021 from 162.5 in Q3, 2021. SMEs’ index decreased marginally to 140.5 in Q4, 2021, from 141.9 in Q3, 2021, indicating relative robustness of the SME sector.
D&B conducted the BOI survey for Q4, 2021 from 1 st to 31st December 2021. The objective of the survey was to gauge business sentiments in Pakistan for the current quarter as well as business performance expectations in the upcoming quarter. This report also compares business sentiments vis-à-vis same time last year (Q4, 2020).
