71% Indian SMEs Optimistic About Domestic Economy In 2017
The small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in India have given their thumps up to the domestic economic growth and have shown confidence in their business performances in 2017, according to a survey conducted by American Express and Oxford University.
The results of the report, 'American Express Global SME Pulse 2017', comes at the time of great uncertainty amongst the SME sector regarding the preparedness of the historic GST, to be implemented soon.
The report was carried out among the senior executives and decision makers across 15 countries, to understand the priorities and aspirations of the SME community. Pleasently surprising, the India SMEs turned out to be overwhelmingly optimistic about the health of the world economy by 65%, followed by Japan at 62%, China at 54%. Overall, the sentiment of the Asian economies is more positive than the global average of 45%.
"With a conducive policy framework and positive regulatory steps taken by the Government, the SME sector has seen substantial growth", says Saru Kaushal, VP and General Manager, Global Corporate Payments, American Express India.
The SMEs in India are confident about their ability to deliver increased revenues and profitability. 76 per cent of the Indian SMEs surveyed expect revenue growth of at least 4 per cent in 2017. In terms of profitability, Indian SMEs are similarly upbeat with 45% forecasting a profit of 8 per cent per annum by 2020.
Apart from this 69 per cent of the SMEs feel that barriers to entry are coming down and providing business opportunities, showing increasing confident in the government's recent initiatives and support to boost the sector. However they cite certain domestic policies, uncertain laws and regulations could be source of concerns over the next year.
SMEs in India understand the growing need of technology up-gradation apart from innovation to business models, products and services and ways of working.
"Understanding the need of being on track with technological advancements, 75% of Indian SMEs plan to use more scalable technology, like cloud based solutions in the next three years", states the report.
"With SMEs focusing on expansion and investing in latest technologies, they need to manage their expenses effectively. Financial discipline can help companies tackle slower business growth even in a slackened economic environment ", adds Kaushal.
The Companies surveyed form part of India's mid-market organizations having revenues of up to $90mn, including SMEs.
