Mozambique: Business confidence rises for 4th straight quarter – INE

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Mozambique: Business confidence rises for 4th straight quarter – INE

3:14 CAT | 15 Jul 2024

File photo: INE

Business confidence of Mozambican companies grew again in the second quarter of this year, for the fourth consecutive quarter, particularly due to increased demand expectations, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

According to the Business Economic Climate Indicator (ICEE), to which Lusa had access today, the “business economic climate continued to recover slightly in the second quarter” of this year.

“This favourable situation was influenced, on the one hand, by the slight increase in demand expectations and, on the other, by the slight increase in employment expectations in the quarter in question,” the ICEE reads.

This is the “fourth consecutive quarter” of growth in this indicator, the INE reports.

The ICEE compiles the opinion of economic agents, including company managers, on the current evolution of their activity and short-term expectations, particularly on employment, demand, orders, prices, production, sales and activity limitations.

The business confidence indicator reached its most recent minimum of 82 points in the fourth quarter of 2021 and rose to a maximum of around 100 points in the second quarter of this year, according to INE data.

“The favourable assessment of the economic climate, in the quarter under analysis, was due, by sector, to the favourable assessment of the indicator in all sectors targeted by the survey, with greater emphasis on the economic sector of commerce, which increased substantially compared to the previous quarter,” the ICEE reads.

It also adds that the demand expectation indicator “continued its upward trend for the fourth consecutive quarter, with its balance reaching the highest level since the first quarter of 2020”, a behaviour that was “mainly due to increases in demand forecasts in sectors of industrial production and commerce that made it possible to overcome the drop in the indicator in the services sector”.

The indicator relating to employment expectations “showed signs of recovery” in the second quarter, “after a slight drop in the previous quarter, even so, its respective balance was below the average of the last three months”.

“This increase in the indicator was due to an appreciation in the services and commerce sectors, despite the depreciation of the industrial production sector, compared to the previous quarter,” the ICEE also reveals.

The price expectation indicator, reads the INE report, “decreased slightly again” in the same period, compared to the first quarter of the year, influenced by the “substantial decrease in the indicator in the services and commerce sectors, despite the increase in the business sector of industrial production”.

Source: Lusa