Singapore business confidence for Q1 2024 continues recovery
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The Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau's Business Optimism Index rose slightly for the second consecutive quarter.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Mia Pei
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SINGAPORE - Local business sentiment improved for the second consecutive quarter amid a mixed outlook for different sectors. The Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau’s (SCCB) Business Optimism Index rose slightly to 4.48 percentage points for the first quarter of 2024 from 4.35 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2023, data released on Dec 4 showed.
Despite the sentiment index still being lower than the 4.73 percentage points seen in the first quarter of 2023, there is recovery from the two-year low of 3.98 percentage points registered in the third 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.
Only two of the six indicators improved on a quarter-on-quarter basis, namely selling prices and new orders. Selling prices rose slightly, from 11.19 percentage points to 11.94 percentage points. New orders inched up from 3.73 percentage points to 5.22 percentage points.
Selling prices also rose year on year, to 11.94 percentage points from 8.96 percentage points.
Net profit increased to 2.24 percentage points for the first quarter of 2024 from 0.75 percentage point in the same period in 2023. Other indicators either remained the same or deteriorated on a year-on-year basis.
SCCB’s chief executive Audrey Chia said: “Moving into 2024, the outlook for local businesses will remain cautiously optimistic for the first quarter amid downside risks in the global economy, and ongoing geopolitical conflicts.
“However, we are likely to see continued growth in construction and tourism-related sectors, as well as a slight rebound in manufacturing with a projected recovery in demand for electronics and semiconductors.”
From a sectoral perspective, the construction and transportation sectors emerged as the most optimistic sectors, with at least five of the six indicators in the positive territory for both.
The outlook for the financial and manufacturing sectors improved slightly, as more indicators were positive compared with the previous quarter.
Business sentiments within the services sector remained upbeat, with four of the six indicators – sales volume, net profit, selling prices and employment levels – in positive territory.
The wholesale sector, however, remained weak, with only selling prices and new orders in positive territory, despite slight improvements in some indicators.
