Gallup Survey: Around 63% of Pakistani businesses believe that the country is headed in the right direction
Meanwhile, almost 7 in 10 businesses claim to have incurred losses over the past year.
Around 63% of Pakistani businesses believe that the country is heading in the right direction.
This was revealed in the Gallup Business Confidence Survey Q2, 2021, released by the Gilani Research Foundation and carried out by Gallup & Gilani Pakistan.
According to the report, 69% of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Balochistan business people, 65% of Karachi and Sindh business people, and 57% of Punjab business people maintain that Pakistan is going in the right direction.
Not all is milk and honey
On the other hand, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected businesses in the country, with 65% of the businesses claiming they witnessed a decline in sales over the past year.
Around 19% of the businesses maintained that their sales remained constant, while only 16% of the businesses witnessed a surge in sales over the course of the period.
The businesses that faced the most losses were books and stationery businesses, along with general stores, with a whopping 100% of them declaring to have incurred losses.
Around 42% of the businesses in the country and 2 in 5 of Karachi business people reported having fewer employees currently compared to a year ago.
This number indicates a massive layoff and a surge in the country’s unemployment ratio.
Around 52% of the businesses in the country reported bad business conditions in Quarter 2 (2021) compared to the previous quarter.
The ongoing inflation was regarded as the biggest problem affecting businesses in Quarter 2 (2021), followed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown.
Meanwhile, 57% of the businesses reported experiencing load-shedding on a daily basis, with the majority saying the power supply was cut off for around 3 hours.
Around 7 in 10 businesses claimed load-shedding was the biggest problem for their business, with almost all traders agreeing on this unanimously.
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