Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Business Barometer, regarding their business activity, prices faced and constraints encountered was launched on Thursday by PIDE. The latest issue of barometer covers the expectations of the firms' for the period January-June 2009. The survey of the firms, for the purpose, was conducted by PIDE in April 2009.
Two broad conclusion drawn by the PIDE Business Barometer are: One; economic activity, during January-June 2009, after registering a down turn in the past six months (July-December 2008), is likely to remain, more or less, at the level of the previous half of the year, and two; slight taming of the price spiral observed in recent months, will continue in the coming periods, at least to the extent that manufacturing sector contributes to aggregate prices.
The barometer's conclusion on static level of business activity is based on firms' expectations for January-June 2009 regarding, the magnitude and direction of change, in their capacity utilisation, production volume, sales volume, inventory levels and investment activity. Similarly the inference on taming of price spiral is drawn from firms' expectations regarding, the magnitude and direction of change, in prices of their inputs, labour wages and prices of their final product.
As expected energy availability tops the list of constraints identified by the firms for the growth of their business volume. Other major constraints indicated by the firms include low level of demand, high cost of capital and inappropriate regulatory environment.-PR