SBF National Business Survey 2023/2024
SBF National Business Survey 2023/2024 was conducted from 14 September to 12 November 2023, and drew responses from 1,056 businesses across all key industries. 82% of the responses were from SMEs, while 18% were from large companies.
Local business sentiment has weakened with only 25% of businesses confident that the economy will improve in the next 12 months, compared to 41% a year before.
The top challenge faced by businesses is an increase in business cost (58%) with manpower cost cited as the key component (75%) followed by cost pass-through from upstream suppliers (58%) and higher utilities cost (56%). Over 8 in 10 businesses (83%) have been impacted by interest rate hikes and an increase in the cost of funding over the past year. Despite cost challenges, businesses continue to invest in their workforce with 42% of businesses planning to increase employee salaries and 26% planning to expand head count next year.