NEW DELHI (TIP): Painting a dismal picture of the economy during the last six months of 2014, IndiaInc said not much had changed on the ground at the industry level during the period falling within the Narendra Modi-led government’s tenure.

The industry chamber’s respondents were, however, optimistic that things will improve a lot in the next as many months, the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (Assocham) said in a statement here.

“As many as 54.2 percent of the respondents in the confidence measuring survey said not much has really changed at the operating level in the last six months, but more number of industry leaders expressed optimism about the shape of things to improve going forward,” Assocham said.

“As many 58.3 percent of the respondents expect that during January to March 2015 their sales volume will increase and 45.8 percent of them expressed similar outlook for profits,” it added.

“Typically investment follows improvement in sales and profitability. The latter things – sales and profitability – are falling in place and there would be a visible change in the next few months following which investment should follow since there is always a lag,” Assocham secretary general D.S. Rawat said.