CII CEOs Poll of 119 top Corporates indicate swifter economic recovery from the impact of the second wave.
Vaccination holds the key to mitigating the impact of the second wave on economic activity and boosting consumer sentiment. Encouragingly, Indian businesses are making concerted efforts to vaccinate their employees as reflected by the poll results which reveal that 55% of the of employees of the polled firms have been vaccinated with at least the first dose of the vaccine.
Assessing the consumer demand for their sectors, 49% of the CEOs expect consumer demand to be better in the first half of 2021-22 when compared to the same period in 2019-20. Similarly, 72% of the CEOs expect private investments to be better in first half of the current fiscal year when compared to the same period in 2019-20.
As many as 62% of the corporate leaders confirmed that their firm was compelled to scale back operations during the second wave. Due to the scaling back of operations, the adverse impact on the profitability parameters of the firms is apparent too. The poll results show that 44% and 39% of the CEOs expect the dent on their revenue and net profit growth respectively to be more than 10% in the first half of the current fiscal as compared to the same period in 2019-20.
In addition to a favorable external environment, some encouraging news is also forthcoming from the employment scenario. Localized containment measures during the second wave had a limited impact on stalling the economic activities fully, portending favorably for the employment situation. Not surprisingly, an overwhelming 83% of the CEOs polled foresee either an increase in hires or maintenance of status-quo on the hiring front.