Confidence in economy drops to 28.3 points in January — CBN

Business confidence in the economy dropped to 28.3 index points in January 2020. This represents a decline of 2.0 index points when compared to 30.3 index points in December 2019.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed this over the weekend in its Business Expectation Survey (BES) Report.

The Business Confidence Index is a leaing indicator of future development in the country.

The business outlook for this month however showed greater confidence in the economy with 61.4 index points.

The report stated: “At 28.3 index points, the overall confidence index (CI) indicated respondents’ optimism on the overall macro-economy in the month of January 2020. The business outlook for February 2020 showed greater confidence in the economy, with 61.4 index points.

“The optimism on the macro-economy in the current month was driven by the opinion of respondents from services (16.1 points), industrial (9.0 points), wholesale/retail trade (2.6 points) and construction (0.5 points) sectors.

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“Similarly, the major drivers of the optimism for next month were services (35.1 points), industrial (20.0 points), wholesale/retail trade (4.5 points) and construction (1.8 points) sectors.

“Further analysis showed that businesses that are neither import-oriented nor export-oriented (19.1 points), both import-oriented and export-oriented (4.6 points) import-oriented (4.1 points), and those that are export-related (0.6 point) drove the positive business outlook in January 2020.”