New Delhi: Indian economy is all set for a strong rebound in 2021-22, says a recent CEOs poll conducted among members of CII National Council. Fifty six per cent of the CEOs polled indicated that the economy would grow in the range of 9 to10 per cent during 2021-22, while another 10 per cent of the CEOs polled expect the economy to grow at a faster pace of more than 10 per cent this fiscal year.

“The government’s strong emphasis on public works, timely interventions to boost liquidity and several reforms carried out in the recent months including easing regulations, Production Linked Incentives scheme, RoDTEP and several other bold reforms have buoyed the optimism on higher economic growth,” said TV Narendran, CII president.

The respondents were also upbeat on sentiments regarding their business, with 35 per cent of the CEOs indicating that the increase in revenue this year may be in the range of 10 to 20 per cent when compared to pre-covid year (2019-20), while another 33 per cent of them indicated expectations of a bigger jump in revenues.

On the gross profits front as well, 35 per cent of the CEOs polled indicated more than 20 per cent increase in gross profits when compared to the pre Covid year, while another 17 per cent indicated an increase in growth of profits by 10 to 20 per cent. This optimism among the CEOs is despite more than a third of them (70 per cent) observing that supply chain bottlenecks were causing problems in the movement of goods in their industry sector.

Nearly 62 per cent of the CEOs polled projected that capital expenditure in their companies for the year 2022-23 to be up to Rs 500 crore. Additionally, 71 per cent of the CEOs polled indicated that they did not raise resources in the Indian or global markets in the past year, while 18 per cent of them indicated that they had raised debt and another 11 per cent indicated that they had raised equity in the Indian or global markets in the past year.

On expected growth in exports, 35 per cent of the CEOs polled indicated up to 20 per cent increase in exports when compared to pre Covid year 2019-20, while 24 per cent of them indicated that the exports would remain the same as in FY20. Interestingly, about 10 per cent of the CEOs indicated more than 50 per cent growth in exports in their companies in the current year when compared to the pre covid year 2019-20.

Furthermore, 36 per cent of the CEOs indicated that their exports to East and SouthEast Asia are increasing at the fastest pace, while 22 per cent of them indicated that North America contributed to their increase in exports and another 20 per cent of the CEOs indicated that Europe accounted for the major increase in exports. On the imports front, 73 per cent of the CEOs indicated that less than 10 per cent of their imports came from China, while another 22 per cent of them indicated the share of their imports from China to be in the range of 10 to 25 per cent.

When asked about the impact of the new Covid variant – omicron on business, 55 per cent of the CEOs polled expect that services sector would get adversely impacted due to the spread of the new variant, while another 34 per cent of them indicated that the spread of the new variant would adversely impact manufacturing activities. /BI/