Acca survey: Small businesses feeling pressure

96 per cent cited external pressures on the business as harming confidence in the SMEs.

KARACHI: Rising costs, declining orders and problems in accessing finance are hitting confidence in business prospects of Pakistan’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to new findings of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) in their Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) analysis. GECS, a quarterly survey, gauges the views of ACCA and IMA finance professionals working in SMEs. Ninety-six per cent of finance professionals who work for or within Pakistan’s SMEs cited external pressures on the business as harming confidence in the sector. As well as cost increases and a drop in orders, securing prompt payment from customers and the negative impact of foreign exchange movements were also reasons for the bleak outlook.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2013.

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