Lehigh Valley business sentiment index zoomed up by 13.1% in April

The Lehigh Valley Business Sentiment Index, the BSI, recorded a 13.1% jump in one quarter in April 2021, its highest growth in 10 years. In response to the COVID-19 restrictions, the index plunged to an all-time low of 43.9, a drop of 30.4% in April 2020. Initially, the recovery was slow; by the last quarter of 2020, the index rose to only 48.5, still 25% below its pre-pandemic level. This year, the picture is different; with the rapidly rising vaccination rates, most businesses have started to, at least, think about going back to normal or something resembling that.
The BSI rose 5.5% in January and another 13.1% in April, reaching 57.9, which is 29.1% above its April 2020. This is good news; however, for comparison basis we have to use pre-pandemic references, thus for the April data we are going to use as reference April 2019. And compared to April 2019, the index is still a good 10% short.
The LV BSI is based on the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce-Kamran Afshar survey of Valley businesses done on a quarterly bases since 1998.


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