Business optimism up in Q3

Construction, transportation and finance sectors are the most optimistic.

Local companies expect better business conditions in Q3 than they experienced in Q2.

Data from the Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau  (SCCB) showed that the business optimism index (BOI) of local companies rose by 4.94 percentage points (pp), up from the 4.82 record in Q2.

Year-on-year, BOI rose from 3.98 pp.

Amongst sectors, construction, transportation and finance are the most optimistic.

In Q3, the construction and transportation sectors had five of six indicators in positive territory, whereas the financial industries showed improvement in four.

The indicators for the BOI include volume of sales, net profits, selling price, new orders, inventory levels, and employment levels.

Of the six indicators, only three showed QoQ improvement in Q3 when considering all sectors: volume of sales (+5.93 pp from +3.70 pp), net profits (+5.93 pp from +4.44 pp), and investors levels (-1.48 pp from -2.99 pp).