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The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), one of India’s premier economic policy research think tanks, in its latest survey report showed that business confidence has recovered from the lows of the pre-pandemic (2019-20) and the following two pandemic years (2020-21 and 2021-22). The NCAER-NSE Business Confidence Index (BCI) was higher at 126.6 in the third quarter of 2022-23 than it was recorded a year ago at 124.4 in 2021-22:Q3. However, sentiments continued to soften sequentially in the first, second and third quarters of 2022-23.

It further said sentiments relating to macro conditions remained relatively buoyant in the third quarter of 2022-23 as compared to the second. The share of positive responses increased for the component, ‘overall economic conditions will improve in the next six months’ and remained unchanged for the component, ‘present investment climate is positive’.

The think-tank said in contrast, sentiments pertaining to firms’ own conditions softened between the two quarters for the components, ‘financial position of firm will improve in the next six months’ and ‘present capacity utilisation is close to or above the optimal level’. NCAER carried out the 123rd Round of its Business Expectations Survey (BES) in December 2022, with support from the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE).