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A CEO poll of 119 top corporates conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) indicates swifter economic recovery from the impact of the second wave, which hit the country in the first quarter of this fiscal.
“The deadly second wave has not affected much of the economic activities as the lockdowns were largely designed to limit social gathering and this has helped limit the impact of the second wave on economic growth when compared to the first wave”, said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director-General, CII, in a statement.
About 59 per cent of the CEOs polled expect the recovery in sales to be better than in the first wave for their companies, while 46 per cent saw a similar trend in their respective sectors.
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Vaccination holds the key to mitigating the impact of the second wave on economic activity and boosting consumer sentiment. Encouragingly, Indian businesses are making concerted efforts to vaccinate their employees as reflected by the poll results which reveal that 55 per cent of the employees of the polled firms have been vaccinated, with at least the first dose of the vaccine. Assessing the consumer demand for their sectors, 49 per cent of the CEOs expect consumer demand to be better in the first half of 2021-22 compared with the same period in 2019-20.
Private investments
Similarly, 72 per cent of the CEOs expect private investments to be better in the first half of the current fiscal year compared with the same period in 2019-20.
As many as 62 per cent of the corporate leaders confirmed that their firm was compelled to scale back operations during the second wave.
Due to the scaling back of operations, the adverse impact on the profitability parameters of the firms is apparent too.
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The poll results show that 44 per cent and 39 per cent of the CEOs expect the dent on their revenue and net profit growth respectively to be more than 10 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal compared with the same period in 2019-20.
“The good news which got further attestation from the poll results is that the external demand has remained supportive, with 81 per cent of the respondents expecting that the second wave in India will not have adverse impact on the exports for their sector in the first half of the current year than the comparable period in 2019-20,” said Banerjee.
The buoyant external demand is buttressed by large-scale global stimulus and the fast pace of vaccination coverage across key global economies.
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