Islamabad, JULY25: According to the most recent study, the nation’s company owners are growing increasingly gloomy about their future due to ongoing political unrest and the new tax-heavy budget, branding Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration as a “worse” manager of the economy.
In order to create its Gallup Business Confidence Index report, Gallup Pakistan polled 454 small, medium, and large business owners from more than 30 districts in the second quarter of 2024. The results were negative for all three strands.
According to the poll, the country’s direction, future business scenario, and existing business situation all saw a four to ten percent fall in their index scores.
About two out of every five firms cite inflation as their top issue, and a sizable portion of enterprises felt that the government’s new financial plan for FY25 was not business friendly.
Similar to the first quarter, price increases were the issue that nearly two out of every five businessmen, or 37%, said the government should solve.
The rate of inflation, which shot up to 12.6 percent in June of last year, is still crippling and is taking away from consumers’ purchasing power. According to the study, over half (54%) of Pakistan’s businesses believe that the current Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz administration is doing a worse job of handling the country’s economy than the previous one did.
Due to the ongoing political unpredictability and the newly announced high federal and provincial tax rates
The country’s corporate confidence has been greatly impacted by budgets, according to Bilal Ijaz Gilani, executive director of Gallup Pakistan and principal creator of the Gallup Pakistan corporate Confidence Index.
