Business Confidence Index (BCI) was released by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the period October-December 2013-14 on 29 December 2013. The Index indicated pick-up in the economic activity in the Quarter 4 of 2013-14.
BCI rose sharply to 54.9 during the Q4 of 2013 -14 from 45.7 in the Q3 of 2013-14 indicating that there are signs of economic turnaround in the fiscal year 2013-14.
This improvement in BCI happened because of improvement in export performance, said the CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee.
The growth in BCI for the Q4 came as a major relief for the Indian economy which has braved the onslaught of the slowdown for the last several quarters and been awaiting the return of growth.
However, the BCI also revealed downside risks to the economy. These include: domestic economic and political instability, slackening consumer demand, high level of corruption, persistent high inflation and risk from exchange rate volatility.
HSBC Business Confidence Index
HSBC Bank Middle East Limited has teamed up with Middle East Economic Digest and YouGov to create a unique index of business sentiment in the Middle East.
The first edition of the HSBC – MEED Middle East Business Confidence Index was published in the Middle East Economic Digest magazine on 18 June.
HSBC Trade Confidence Index for India stood at the highest — 142 points, followed by UAE (132 points) and Indonesia (127 points).