PRESS RELEASE – THE majority of respondents to the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce Business Performance Survey for the period June 2016 to December 2016 rate economic growth prospects for their sector (56%) and the economy (60%) as fair.
These are just some of the findings of the survey of Chamber members on the performance of their businesses and outlook for the economy.
The survey, which measured business performance over a number of indicators, revealed that the main concerns of respondents to the survey centred on the state of the economy, crime and government bureaucracy with 65% of respondents describing the climate for doing business in St. Lucia as difficult.
The expectations for increasing employment during the next six months was seen as positive by only 47% of respondents while 53% of respondents expect to keep employment levels the same.
Overall, 69% of respondents reported an increase in sales during the review period while 50% reported actual sales being higher than projected sales during the review period.
The St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce is preparing to conduct another Business Performance Survey this month, which will review business performance for the first half of the year and attempt to gauge members’ views on the recently-presented 2017/2018 Budget.