KUALA LUMPUR: Businesses remain positive about their prospects for the second quarter of 2022 (2Q22) as well as for the six-month period to September 2022, according to the Statistics Department’s latest business tendency statistics.

       Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said going into 2Q, businesses were positive albeit at a slower pace, with a confidence indicator of 3.5% for the quarter against 7.6% in 1Q

       “Despite the reopening of Malaysia’s international borders, which is anticipated to spur economic activities, businesses are staying cautious on their prospects amid inflation pressure, supply chain and labour shortage issues,” he said in a statement yesterday.

       Except for construction, all sectors surveyed anticipated better business conditions in 2Q22.

       “The wholesale and retail trade sector is the most optimistic on business outlook.

       “The sector’s confidence indicator has increased for three quarters in a row, with 15.5% in 2Q22 from 4% in the preceding quarter,” Mohd Uzir noted.

       Based on the quarterly business tendency survey, brighter sentiment in both the wholesale trade subsector as well as retail trade subsector led to this improvement.

       Meanwhile, the services sector predicted business situation to improve at a moderate rate, posting a confidence indicator of 5.6% compared to 11.1% in 1Q22. As for the industry sector, it expected its business performance to grow at a slower pace in 2Q22 with an indicator of 0.8% compared to 12.2% in the preceding quarter.The agriculture and mining subsectors, in particular, anticipated unfavourable business conditions in Q2, Mohd Uzir said.

       Meanwhile, the construction sector remained pessimistic but its confidence indicator improved to 23.2% compared with 40.4% in 1Q22.

       The Statistics Department said 45.2% of the survey respondents predicted their gross revenue would rise in 2Q22 while 19% expected a reduction, leading to a net balance of 26.2%. The rest of the respondents (35.8%) anticipated gross revenue to stagnate.

       In the same quarter, 72.2% of the businesses expected their manpower to stay the same despite showing a net balance of 10.8%. Of the businesses, 19.3% intended to hire more manpower in 2Q22, while 8.5% planned a reduction.

       On expectations of business performance for the upcoming six months (April to September 2022), Mohd Uzir said businesses also remained optimistic on their outlook with a net balance of 25%, up slightly from 18.9% recorded previously.

       This, he said, was attributed to better sentiments in the wholesale and retail trade, industry and services sectors. — Bernama