A new report by the central bank shows that the level of optimism by firms regarding economic activity in Botswana has declined compared to last year, APA can report here Wednesday.
The Bank of Botswana report, titled “Business Expectations Survey”, notes that businesses generally expect lower sales, reduced capacity utilisation and lower profits this year compared to the situation that prevailed when the last survey was published in September 2018.
“Investment in buildings also declined in the current survey, in line with the dampening effect of the tight access to credit in the domestic market as perceived by the respondents (firms),” said the report made public on Wednesday.
It said the anticipated deterioration in business confidence among both domestic-oriented and export-oriented firms with respect to future prospects is expected to affect economic activity.
According to the report, “firms are less optimistic about economic performance in 2019 than projections made in the 2019 Budget Speech.”
It said businesses expected the economy to grow by 3.8 percent in 2019 compared to the estimate of 4.2 percent in the 2019 budget speech and the 4.5 percent recorded in 2018.
KO/jn/APA