New Delhi, April 29 (PTI): A business confidence index for the first quarter of 2012-13, developed by the Confederation of Indian Industry, has shown a moderate increase on a quarter-to-quarter basis though on a yearly basis it has reported a decline.
"Compared with a value of 62.5 in the first quarter of 2011-12, the index reported a value of 55 in April-June, 2012," the business association said.
Expectations of an increase in investments and improvement in capacity utilisation have moderately boosted the business confidence on a quarterly basis.
Out of the 200 respondents, about 42 per cent said India's economy would grow 7-7.5 per cent in 2012-13.
About 29 per cent expect inflation to decline to below 7 per cent this financial year from 8.8 per cent in 2011-12.
The report said 58.7 per cent of the respondents expected capacity utilisation to be above 75 per cent in the first quarter.
It said there was an increase in overall sales, new orders and pre-tax profits in the last quarter of 2011-12 and these indicators were expected to continue increasing in the first quarter of 2012-13.
