FORECAST OF BUSINESS PERFORMANCE FOR THE SECOND QUARTER 2019

Businesses are more confident for second quarter of 2019, with the overall confidence indicator rising to +2.8 per cent from -2.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2019. This means that the number of optimists increase compared to number of pessimists during the quarter.

Wholesale & Retail Trade and Services sectors foresee more favourable business conditions in the second quarter of 2019. The Services sector is most positive, where the confidence indicator recorded +20.8 per cent as compared to +5.9 per cent registered in the previous quarter. Confidence indicator for Wholesale & Retail Trade sector also rebounds in the second quarter of 2019 to +6.7 per cent from -8.2 per cent recorded in the last quarter. In contrast, respondents in Industry and Construction sectors expect their business situation to decline in the second quarter of 2019 with the confidence indicators of -6.7 per cent and -9.3 per cent, respectively.

Expectations of Gross Revenue and Number of Employees                    

A total of 37.8 per cent of respondents in all surveyed sectors expect their gross revenue to increase in the second quarter of 2019, while 15.7 per cent of the respondents anticipate a decrease which led to a net balance of +22.1 per cent.

Majority of the establishments (80.1%) expect to maintain the number of employees at the current state for the second quarter of 2019. Only 12.7 per cent establishments are planning to hire new employees while 7.2 per cent foresee a decrease in the number of employees.

EXPECTATIONS OF BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN APRIL TILL SEPTEMBER 2019

A net balance of +14.2 per cent of the establishments expect more favourable business performance for the period of April to September 2019. This is an improvement over the net balance of +0.6 per cent recorded in the previous quarter (January to June 2019). Industry, Wholesale & Retail Trade and Services sectors expect an increase in their businesses for the period of April to September 2019 with a net balance of +7.3 per cent, +13.4 per cent and +30.5 per cent,  respectively. Meanwhile, respondents in Construction sector anticipate their business situation will decline with a net balance of -2.3 per cent.

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Released By:

DATO' SRI DR. MOHD UZIR MAHIDIN
CHIEF STATISTICIAN MALAYSIA
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, MALAYSIA
 DrUzir_Mahidin    Dr_Uzir

30 May 2019

Contact person:

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