Business and investors’ confidence is climbing with the Bank of Jamaica perceptions of present and future business conditions survey showing strong improvements in the latest reading, done in August this year.
The All-Jamaican stock market composite index also confirms the gains in confidence as can be seen from the chart. The stock market index dipped ahead of the survey numbers and started the rebound earlier than the survey figures.
The future conditions index rose to its highest level on record to 175.7 from 153.0 in the previous survey while the index of present business conditions rose to 211.7 from the 186.8 attained in the previous survey. According to the country’s central bank “Both indices reflected increases in the proportion of respondents of the view that conditions are or will be “better.” In addition, there were decreases in the proportion of respondents indicating that conditions are or will be “worse.”
The construction sector is one area reflecting improved confidence in the economy.
With the stock market moving from 178,203.70 points at the end of August to 185,329 points at the end of October, it is expected that perception of business conditions would have improved over the August levels as the stock market seems to mirror very well the sentiments of the business sector.
