The overall status of business in the country in the last quarter (April-June, 2020) of the fiscal year 2019-2020 (FY20) was extremely poor due to negative impact of deadly coronavirus.
While all the sectors suffered, the worst performers were the ready-made garments (RMG) sector, leather sector, light engineering, wholesale and restaurant.
The pharmaceutical and financial sectors, however, performed comparatively better during the period, according to the quarterly Present Business Status Index (PBSI) constructed and released by South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and The Asian Foundation on Saturday.
The organisations also unveiled quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI) which indicated that the business confidence in the current quarter (July-September, 2020) improved slightly over the previous fiscal.
The indices and its results were released at a webinar titled ‘survey on business confidence’.
Mr. Tipu Munshi, MP, Minister for Commerce and Dr. Mashiur Rahman, Economic Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister, were present in the event as chief and special guests respectively.
Dr Selim Raihan, Executive Director of SANEM moderated the webinar and presented the findings of the survey.
The Asia Foundation was represented by Mr Kazi Faisal Seraj, Bangladesh Country Representative of Bangladesh.