Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a survey conducted from June 15 to Aug 2, the business confidence indicator took a plunge to -21.3% against -3.1% in Q2.

He said all sectors anticipated unfavourable business conditions for the third quarter of the year in light of the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic.

This is especially so for businesses in the wholesale and retail sector, which reported a business confidence indicator of -39.4% as compared to 5.6% in Q2, he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, the industrial and services sectors also expressed pessimism with their confidence dropping to -11.0% and -22.8% respectively for Q3, from -1.5% and -6.1% in the previous quarter.

Likewise, the construction sector anticipated poorer business conditions, reporting a lower confidence indicator of -45% for Q3 against -30.5% in Q2.

Meanwhile, about 24% of establishments expect higher gross revenue, while 36.5% expect lower.

On the same matter, Uzir said 40% of establishments predicted that their gross revenue would remain the same.

In terms of employment, a majority of the establishments (76.5%) surveyed reported that they are aiming to retain their employees, with 8.5% of respondents actually expecting to hire more. On the other hand, 15% reported that they intended on reducing their workforce.

Similar to the three-month quarterly outlook, all sectors anticipate negative prospects for the next six months, especially for wholesale and retail.