Islamabad

Pakistani entrepreneurs are getting increasingly pessimistic about the conditions of their businesses owing to the country’s political and economic situation, according to a new survey.

The Gallup Pakistan Business Confidence Index showed 65 per cent of business owners believe their businesses are facing bad conditions.

Cloth and garment shops are experiencing the worst level of confidence, with 81 per cent of them saying business conditions are bad.

Findings of the survey show the Net Future Business Confidence score has worsened by 50 per cent since the beginning of 2022 and is now at -10 per cent.

Compared to earlier this year, the number of businesses saying the country is headed in the wrong direction has gone up by 32 per cent.

The report comes after Pakistan faced the worst floods in decades.

Similar to the findings of the survey conducted in the first quarter of 2022, the latest poll shows inflation remains the "most-cited" problem that businesses would like the government to solve by the end of this year.

As many as 72 per cent of the businesses surveyed reported experiencing loadshedding every day.

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81 per cent of the businesses said they do not believe the court system is fair, impartial and uncorrupted versus 7 per cent in the first quarter of 2022.