BUSINESS sentiment for the next six months has become gloomier as firms’ performance worsened further from a quarter ago, the latest Business Times-Singapore University of Social Sciences (BT-SUSS) Business Climate Survey has found.

Business performance dimmed in the fourth quarter. All three of the performance indicators monitored deteriorated from a quarter ago, with the net balance for profits taking the biggest hit, falling 11 percentage points to -18 per cent.

The net balance is the difference between the share of firms with an increase and those with a decrease in an indicator, compared to the year-ago period. A positive net balance suggests expansion, and a negative one, contraction.