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Journalism of Courage
For the first time since October 2001, the quarterly Business Confidence Index published by National Council of Applied Economic Research has shown a decline, although by a modest 2.9 percentage points.
The fall has been attributed partly to the Iraq war as well as lower rating for investment climate and financial position of firms surveyed. Fifty per cent of firms surveyed, almost the same as in the previous quarter, expect overall economic conditions to improve over the next six months.
But 31.7 per cent of respondents (a fall of 2.7 per cent) feel the investment climate is positive. The report states that while perception about overall economic conditions could be linked to buoyant domestic demand conditions, the investment mood could have been affected by the twin effects about uncertainty arising out of the Iraq war as well as failure of the Budget 2003-04 to remove policy uncertainty.
