According to the latest and comprehensive round of the ASSOCHAM Bizcon Survey, India's economic situation will improve significantly at all the 3 critical macro industry and firm levels in the coming 6 months.

This is despite the fact that as of now, domestic demand remains weak and the global markets stay uncertain. But the industry seems to feel that the slowdown has bottomed out.

Gauging and reflecting the mood of the business and the industry, the September Round of Survey found that though the situation on the ground did not change in the last six months, prospects have improved for the next Q2.

The survey said that good news is that the industry is optimistic and expects both the overall economic as well as their individual situations to be much better in the short to medium term horizon.

Majority of the respondents in the ABS were of the opinion that overall economic situation would be better. At the industry level 62.5% of industry shares the viewpoint the performance shall be better in the coming six months.

The survey added that the most optimistic outlook, however, came from the respondents who said the state of affairs will improve between September 2012 and February to March 2013.

Mr Rajkumar N Dhoot President of Chamber that "The ASSOCHAM BIZCON Survey, September 2012 round was conducted against the background of the prevailing economic slowdown and the decelerating industrial growth following serious political logjam to really gauge the impact of all these developments on the overall business climate. It has raised industry concerns like high cost of credit, poor infrastructure and certain regulatory issues delaying the project take-offs."

At the firm level, 65% of the respondents felt that the selling price will remain more or less same. However, only 41.7% felt that their profits are going to be pretty much at current levels in short term, thereby indicating that India Inc may face pressure to maintain their profitability.

Source - assocham.org

(www.steelguru.com)