India's Business Confidence Index soars to 150 in Q1 FY25, up from last year: NCAER-NSE survey

The BCI is based on four components—overall economic conditions to improve in next six months; financial position of the firms will improve in next six months; present investment climate; and whether present capacity utilisation was close to or above optimal level.

“The share of firms expecting overall conditions to improve went up from nearly 66 percent in Q4 of FY 24 to over 71 percent in Q1 of FY25,” said the NCAER-NSE survey.

The number of firms expecting their own financials to improve over the next six months increased from over 60 per cent to more than 67 percent during the period.

Over 60 percent firms gave a thumbs up to the present investment climate, while nearly 98 percent firms reported optimal or above optimal capacity utilisation in Q1.

“Firms’ perception about the improvement in their own financial position is particularly noteworthy as the share of such firms was 67 percent, the highest since Q3 of 2010-11 (76%),” said NCAER’s Prof Bornali Bhandari, who led the survey.

The survey said sentiments about external trade, both exports of final products and imports of raw material improved with a large share of firms expecting them to increase.

It also found an uptick in the labour markets’ sentiments as compared with the previous quarter, with more firms planning to increase hiring.

The survey was carried out in June, covering 497 firms spread across six cities, spread across all four regions of the country. It covered both MSME and large firms.