A survey conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria showed that respondents expected the economy to improve in December after the decline in November.
The Statistics Department of the CBN disclosed this on Friday in its report titled ‘November 2020 business expectations survey report’.
Part of the report read, “At -1.5 index points, the overall confidence index on the macro economy was pessimistic in November 2020.
“However, respondents are optimistic in their outlook for the month of December with a confidence index of 38.8.
“They also expressed optimism in the overall business outlook for January and May 2021 as shown in a greater confidence of the economy at 47.1 and 59.3 index points respectively.
“The pessimism on the macro economy in the current month was driven by the opinion of respondents from agric/services (-1.2 points), construction (-0.6 points) and wholesale/retail trade sectors (-0.3 points).
“The major drivers of optimism for next month were agric/services (23.1 points) and manufacturing sectors (11.3 points).”
Further analysis revealed that businesses that were neither import nor export-oriented (-2.1 points) and both import and exporter-oriented (-0.4 points) drove the negative business outlook for the month under review.
– Punch