Despite geopolitical challenges, the long-term economic expectations of Ukrainian businesses are showing positive changes. According to the results of a monthly survey of business leaders conducted by the Institute of Economic Research, the optimism index has risen from 0.11 to 0.15 points.
This is reported by Бізнес • Медіа
This positive trend is driven by a decrease in the share of companies planning to reduce their operations – only 1.4% of respondents. At the same time, the number of enterprises expecting positive changes has increased from 14% to 16%. However, medium-term forecasts regarding the next six months have become somewhat less optimistic, and uncertainty about the overall economic environment has increased by 1.5%.
Impact on the Business Environment
February marked an important moment as active discussions began regarding a possible end to the war or a freezing of the conflict, which has affected the level of uncertainty in the medium term. Meanwhile, about 62% of businesses, or two out of three respondents, are operating at maximum capacity or with a load of over 75%. The share of companies with a load of less than 25% has decreased from 8% to 4%.
Industry Prospects
The aggregated indicator of industry prospects, used by Eurostat and the OECD, has remained virtually unchanged at 0.12. This indicates the stability of key sectors of the economy amid uncertainty.