DOSM: Businesses remain cautious but confidence improves in 3Q

KUALA LUMPUR – Businesses remain cautious of their business performance with confidence indicator posting an improvement at -21.0% in the third quarter of 2020 from -25.2% in the previous quarter, as reported on Bernama.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the business performance expectation is influenced by the economic uncertainty with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic that is plaguing the world today.

“All sectors anticipate less favourable business situation in the third quarter of 2020. The confidence indicator for the construction sector improved to -23.7% from -75.0% recorded in the previous quarter.

“The wholesale and retail trade and services sectors also foresee better business performance at -22.3% and -14.6%, respectively, in the reference quarter compared to -51.5% and -27.8% in the second quarter of 2020,” said in a statement today.

Mohd Uzir was delivering findings from the Business Tendency Statistics Third Quarter 2020, released by Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), which presents expectations on business performance for the upcoming quarter and six months ahead.

Meanwhile, the industry sector foresees a significant decline of -24.0% in this quarter as against -8.2% in the previous quarter.

“Among all of the sub-sectors covered, three sub-sectors are optimistic towards their business sentiment namely communication, insurance, and information and communication technology (ICT),” he said.

Overall, 37.2% of respondents foresee an increment in their gross revenue for the third quarter of 2020 while 29.8 per cent forecast a decrease in gross revenue which led to a net balance of +7.5%.

In terms of number of employees, the recruitment trends are projected to decline in the third quarter of 2020 with a net balance -7.1%.

“For the next six months, businesses predict better business situation despite negative trajectory for the period of July to December 2020 with a net balance of -11.2% compared to -42.8% in the previous quarter,” said Mohd Uzir.

The industry and services sectors expect a significant improvement with a net balance of -7.9% and -4.8% during the reference period compared to -26.7% and -44.7%, respectively.

Simultaneously, the wholesale and retail trade sector also predicts a better business performance with a net balance -34.2% as against -81.2% in the last quarter.

On the other hand, the construction sector anticipates their business performance to remain unchanged with a net balance of 0.0%.