Firms in most parts of the country were optimistic about the overall macro-economy last month, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Business Expectations Survey (BES) Report for February 2025.

The report, which was released on Friday, showed that the overall Confidence Index (CI) on the macro-economy stood at 19.7 in February and is expected to rise to 25.0 this month; 37.7 in the next three months and 42.5 in the next six months.

According to the report, the firms’ optimism, “maybe attributed to their positive outlook on exchange rate.”

Specifically, the report stated that all sectors expressed optimism in February, “with the industry sector recording the highest optimism.”

It also said that the mining and quarrying; electricity, gas and water supply sector indicated the highest expansion plan for this month, adding that, “respondent firms expect the naira to appreciate across all the reviewed periods.”

Furthermore, the report said that overall capacity utilisation improved in February with the construction sector the best performance, adding that all the sectors expressed optimism on their operations.

Similarly, the report stated the outlook of firms on volume of total order and volume of business activity was positive in February.

It said that, as a result, firms hope to employ more workers this month.

However, the report said that firms identified high interest rate, insecurity, insufficient power supply, high taxes, financial problems and high bank charges as their top business constraints during the month.

According to the report, the outlook on the macro-economy for February, “was driven by respondents from all regions except the southeast.”

Meanwhile, the CBN also released its Inflation Expectations survey Report for February 2025, on Friday, which showed that more medium sized businesses perceived the inflation rate to have moderated in February.

According to the report, businesses and households said that energy cost, exchange rate, transportation costs, interest rate and insecurity influenced their perception of the inflation rate in February.

They also said that they expect inflation to ease over the next six months.

The report indicates that while most respondents want the CBN to reduce interest rates, only about 38.4 per cent of them believe that the apex bank’s announcement has a significant impact on inflation.