Business community confident on Govt ability

New Delhi, Apr 16: The business community's confidence in the Government's ability to deal with different economic dimensions has improved significantly, according to the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).

The Political Confidence Index (PCI) has bounced back by gaining the 17.2 percentage points and stood at an all time high of 127.3, NCAER said.

The PCI, which had plummeted by 15.5 percentage points during April-June quarter, gained 5.2 percentage points at 109.2 in the next quarter.

It increased modestly by 0.9 percentage points at 110.1 during the October-December quarter.

THE PCI is calculated on eight different indicators capturing confidence on the Government with respect to its performance in dealing with different economic dimensions.

''Every decision taken by the Government has its repurcussion on the economy and this perception can change periodically,'' NCAER said.

The research body said that the gain of 17.2 percentage points during the last quarter suggests that the business community expects the governments performance to manage economy would improve in the next six months.

''Expectations of 8.1 per cent growth in FY 2005-06, controlled inflation, good export performance, good negotiation skills at the Hong Kong Ministerial on WTO and above all the better than expected fiscal performance of the Central Government in 2005-06 had led to increased political confidence rating by firms,'' NCAER said in its report.

Perception of firms have improved with regard to all factots except pushing economic reform forward.

''In fact, rating for all indicators except managing inflation exchange rate and pushing economic reform forward are at all time high,'' the agency said.

UNI