Half of Indian businesses have reported that the country’s strong macroeconomic performance has either not translated into improved business performance or has done so only partially, according to the latest edition of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Business Outlook Survey.This finding comes at a time when questions have been raised about whether the economic growth numbers put out by the government are reflective of the situation on the ground. However, the composite business confidence score in the CII Business Outlook Survey for July-September 2026, looking at the current situation as well as the future expectations, rose to 66 in Q2 from 60.8 in the first quarter of this financial year. The score in Q2 of this year was the same as in Q2 last year.“The sharp improvement reflects strengthening in business sentiments, primarily supported by the easing of disruptions stemming from the West Asia conflict,” the survey said.The survey covered 238 public sector and private firms from “all industry sectors”, including micro, small, medium and large enterprises, from different regions, CII said. The data shows that 13.4% of the respondents said that “onground conditions remain subdued despite strong macro data” while another 36.6% said that they saw some improvement in their business conditions “but weaker than the indicators suggest”. On the other hand, 11.3% of the respondents said that their business growth “matches or exceeds macro momentum”. Another 29.4% said that they saw “clear benefits, though somewhat below headline growth”. The survey does not mention how the remaining 9.3% voted. The demand aspect of the survey showed that 29.4% of the respondents expect no change in domestic demand in Q2 as compared to Q1. In addition, another 3.5% expect demand to be more than 20% lower than in Q1, and 6.1% expect demand to be 5-20% lower than in Q1. The other side of this data is that a sizable number of companies also saw higher demand.“For Q2FY27, 61% of respondents expect demand to increase, while only 9.6% foresee a moderation, a widening of the positive margin over Q1 that signals sustained confidence in end-market conditions,” the survey said. “The share expecting demand growth above 20% rises from 12.9% in Q1FY27 to 16% in Q2FY27, indicating that optimism is not just holding but intensifying at the upper end.” Published - September 07, 2026 05:18 pm IST