ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – Singapore’s business sentiment improved for the second consecutive quarter amid mixed outlooks for different sectors.
Data released yesterday showed the Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau’s (SCCB) Business Optimism Index rising slightly to 4.48 percentage points in the first quarter of 2024 from 4.35 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2023.
There is recovery from the two-year low of 3.98 percentage points registered in the third quarter of 2023 despite the sentiment index still being lower than the 4.73 percentage points seen in the first quarter of 2023.
Released quarterly, the index is a measure of business confidence in the local economy. It is derived from responses from 200 business owners and senior executives, who are asked about their expectations on six areas of business, namely: sales volume, net profit, selling prices, new orders, inventories and employment levels.
Similar to the fourth quarter of 2023, indicators of sales volume, net profit, selling prices, new orders and employment levels stayed expansionary in the first quarter of 2024, while inventory levels remained contractionary at minus 2.24 percentage points.
