BUSINESS confidence in Malaysia has weakened further in 3Q 2021 to -21.3% from -3.1% in the preceding quarter as pessimism escalated on business operating conditions.
In fact, all sectors anticipate unfavourable business conditions for 3Q 2021 in light of severe and prolonged COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
The confidence indicator of the wholesale & retail trade sector plunge to -39.4% from +5.6% in 2Q 2021 as both subsectors are less confident towards their business situation in the next three months.
Meanwhile, the industry and services sector indicates higher pessimism with their confidence indicator having dropped to -11.0% and -22.8% respectively in 3Q 2021 from -1.5% and -6.1% recorded in the previous quarter.
“Concurrently, the construction sector also anticipates its business situation to recede to -45% against -30.5% recorded in the past quarter,” Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin pointed out in a statement on 3Q 2021 business tendency statistics.
Looking at the sentiment for six months ahead, businesses are again pessimistic on their business outlook for the period of July to December with an overall net balance of -21.7% from +11% recorded for the April-September period.
Similar to the three months outlook, all sectors anticipate negative prospects with the least pessimistic sector being the industry sector, as it expects business conditions to slip from +12.5% to -11.8% for 2H 2021.
Simultaneously, the services and construction sector expect business situations to be less favourable for the next six months with a net balance of -14.2% and -24.2% as against +8.4% and +6.1% recorded for the period of April to September 2021 respectively.
The wholesale & retail trade sector also foresees a challenging business performance in the forthcoming six months with a net balance of -59.7% from +12.5% posted previously. – Aug 26, 2021
