Biz confidence nears all-time high - LMD

It's official, says LMD, that "business people are euphoric about the LTTE's crushing military defeat at the hands of the security forces".

The nation's only measure of business confidence "literally skyrocketed in June, to its highest level since December 2003 and within striking distance of the all-time high a year earlier", it said.

The magazine said that the LMD-Nielsen Business Confidence Index (BCI) "catapulted its way up to nearly where it's an all-time high, a quantum leap of 72 basis points took it to 161 points, which is the highest jump on record.

LMD also notes that the "the BCI's present score also represents a 66-month high, and it is now 40 points above the all-time average. and threatening to glide past the magic number of 178 in the short term".

The investment climate has also suddenly taken a turn for the better, it said. "We had to go back to November 2003 to find a month in which more than half of those surveyed said our investment potential is 'very good' or 'good'," it said. One respondent to the LMD-commissioned poll undertaken by leading research firm The Nielsen Company said that "just because the war is over it doesn't mean that everyone is confidently conducting business" and that we may have to be patient for another year or so to see whether "things fall into place".