Reduction in Inflation, macroeconomic stability and interest rate cuts contribute to large decreases in business pessimism; Gallup Business Confidence Index for Quarter 4 2024 Islamabad, Lahore , Karachi [18th Feb 2025] According to a Gallup Pakistan Survey with business owners in the fourth quarter of 2024 as part of Gallup Business Confidence Index report, there has been a significant reduction in pessimism among the business community about how they perceive their current and future business prospects as well as overall direction of the country. 55% surveyed businesses are satisfied with their current business performance. 61% of businesses now have positive expectations for the future. The survey is the fourteenth edition of a quarterly Business Confidence Survey that Gallup Pakistan conducts in Pakistan. The Business Confidence Index is an important barometer capturing the sentiments of the business community in any country and used across the world by policy makers. The survey was conducted with scientifically and randomly selected 482 businesses across Pakistan. The businesses hailed from over 30 districts of Pakistan and belonged to different sectors and fields of business community. Small, medium and large businesses were included according to their share in the national economy. 9 Key Findings: Finding 1: 55% Surveyed businesses say there is business is doing well these days (either very good or good). There has been a 10% percent improvement since Q2 2024 (about six months ago) when the same question was asked. There is also a reduction of around 7% in businesses who rate their current situation as very bad. The manufacturing sector seems to have recovered less than the services and trade sector when it comes to rating the current business situation. Finding 2: In Q4 2024, 19% more businesses than in Q2 of 2024 think that their business will be better off in the future; 61% in Q4 2024 said expectations for the future are positive, while 40% expect things to get worse. The Net Future Business Confidence score has increased by 36% since Q2 2024. Finding 3: 20% less businesses in Quarter 4 of 2024, as compared to Quarter 2 of 2024, think that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Overall trend for the past few quarters has been consistently negative, however there has been some improvement in the current quarter. Finding 4: Similar to Q2 2024, inflation is the most cited problem in Q4 that 30% of businesses would like the government to solve. The proportion of businesses that want the government to solve/decrease taxation decreased from 20% to 14%. Finding 5: 33% of the businesses surveyed said that their workforce decreased in Quarter 4, a reduction of 10% from Quarter 2. More service providing businesses than manufacturers and traders decreased their workforce. Finding 6: 56% of businesses surveyed said ‘no’ loadshedding happened in their establishment on the day of the survey, while 44% said yes. Quarter-to-Quarter reports of loadshedding decrease: 17% less businesses in Quarter 4 report loadshedding in their business on the day they were surveyed, (Q2 covered summer months and Q4 covers winter, and the results are consistent with expectations 56% of businesses surveyed said ‘no’ to loadshedding in Q4, while 44% said yes. Finding 7: Around a third of businesses (34%) reported having to pay a bribe to run their business in the past six months. More traders report having to pay a bribe (50%) than manufacturers(35%) and service providers (33%). Finding 8: 41% of surveyed businesses said PMLN was better than the previous PTI government, another 21% found it similar. 38% found PMLN government worse than PTI government. Finding 9: Majority (51%) business owners surveyed perceived themselves not to be risk takers; Roughly half (49%) the businesses described themselves as at least somewhat risk-taking