Firms operating in Nigeria have identified insufficient power supply, high interest rate and financial problems as major factors that constrained business activities in August.
They also fingered unfavourable economic and political climate as well as unclear economic laws among others.
This was contained in the Business Expectation Survey Report of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN for the month of august 2019.
In the survey, which was conducted between August 12 and 21, 2019, with a sample size of 1,050 businesses nationwide, respondent firms expect the naira to appreciate in the current month, next month and in the next twelve months.
Their expectation was also that the level of inflation would increase slightly in both the next six months and the next twelve months.
The respondents’ average expected inflation rate in the next six months and the next twelve months stood at 11.6 and 11.4 percent, respectively.
Similarly, the report indicates that borrowing rate is expected to rise in the current month, next month and the next twelve months.
The sample of the survey covered the services, industrial, wholesale and retail trade as well as the construction sectors.
The respondent firms were made up of small, medium and large corporations covering both import and export oriented businesses.
The firms expressed satisfaction with the management of inflation by the government with a positive net satisfaction index of 8.3 in August 2019. The net satisfaction index is the proportion of satisfied less the proportion of dissatisfied respondents.
