The Georgian Business Confidence Index (BCI) has decreased marginally (-1, QoQ), but at 25.0 it remains significantly higher than it was in the same quarter last year (14.8). The third quarter decrease in the index was mostly driven by a significant decline in expectations.
With 38% of business executives reporting ‘improved’ performance in the last three months, the past performance index posted a substantial increase, rising 7.9 points to a robust 30.4. The agriculture sector saw the highest increase.
Business optimism about the overall economy dropped to below the Q2 2016 (-12.7, QoQ) level, but remained higher than Q3 2015 at 27.2 percentage points. The majority of business respondents expect their economic performance to remain unchanged and 25% expect improvement. Expectations about the end of the summer season weakened in all sectors.
The sales price expectation index decreased (-0.2, QoQ) and turned negative for the service sector.