This quarterly survey poses ten qualitative questions regarding the business climate and investment intentions to senior officers of approximately 2,000 Canadian business organizations. Responses to three select questions are used to construct the Index.
Document Highlights
The surge of optimism seen in the first half of 2002 lost some of its shine during the third quarter. The Index has dropped slightly, to 129.7, just below the three-year average.
- Over 90 per cent of respondents expect future profitability to improve or remain the same, a showing that compares quite favourably with results in the heady 1997-2000 period.
- Just over 75 per cent of respondents feel that the present is not a bad time to undertake expenditures on plant and equipment.
- In keeping with the upbeat investing mood, 58.9 per cent of respondents expect their capital spending to grow over the next six months. This is down only a marginal 0.6 percentage points.
- The current survey reveals that the percentage of respondents who believe inflation will grow by at least 3 per cent annually remains well below levels seen in the 2000-2001 period.
