M’sian business sentiment improves in 1Q18

KUALA LUMPUR: Business sentiment among Malaysian companies improved further in the first quarter 2018 ( Q1 2018), reaching a new peak, as growth momentum continued to pick up, based on the Dun & Bradstreet ( D& B) Malaysia’s Business Optimism Index (BOI) survey.

D&B is one of the world leading business information providers and the survey was the 20th D&B BOI study being released in Malaysia, to measure business confidence in the economy.

The survey revealed that overall BOI climbed to 7.25 percentage points in Q1 2018 from 5.52 percentage points in Q4 2017.

On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, D&B said the BOI rose from 1.65 percentage points in Q1 2017 to 7.25 percentage points in Q1 2018.

The survey disclosed that four business indicators had risen upwards on a quarter-on-quarter basis in Q1 2018, while five indicators improved on a y-o-y basis.

It said both the services and transportation sectors were most optimistic, with all six indicators in positive territory and the construction sector the least optimistic, with only two indicators in the expansionary zone for Q1 2018.

There was a visible increase in firms expecting investments to increase from eight per cent in 2017 to 18 per cent in 2018.

“Meanwhile, the proportion of firms expecting investments to decrease, fell from 21 per cent in 2017 to 15 per cent for 2018.

“A majority of local firms anticipated investments to remain unchanged at 67 per cent,” D& B said.

Based on the survey, firms had identified machinery and equipment to be the most important area of investments for 2018 at 40 per cent, followed by Information Technology (28 per cent) and skills upgrading of employees (12 per cent).

Dun & Bradstreet Malaysia CEO, Audrey Chia said it expects Malaysian businesses to be more optimistic about investments in business expansion in 2018.

“Besides global economic uncertainties and rising business costs, increased competition is one new area which has been identified as a key challenge for Malaysian companies,” she added.

Chia said both the services and transportation sectors had benefited from strong private consumption and government spending in public infrastructure. — Bernama