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China’s Entrepreneur Confidence Index slightly up in Q1
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China’s Entrepreneur Confidence Index (ECI) continued to rise in the first quarter of this year, up 2.1 percentage points from the fourth quarter last year to 76.3 percent, according to a survey conducted by the People’s Bank of China, or the central bank.
The ECI is a gauge of the understanding, views and projections of business people.
Meanwhile, China’s business climate index, a major measure of macro economic outlook, edged down 0.2 percentage points to 71.1 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter, ending the continuing upward trend over the past seven quarters, according to the survey made public on Wednesday.
But entrepreneurs anticipate a better environment for business as the quarterly business climate expectation index rose 2.8 percentage points from the previous quarter to 73.4 percent, a record high in the past three years, according to the survey.
The index measuring market demand fell 1.7 percentage points from the quarter earlier to 63.5 percent while indexes measuring of domestic and overseas orders fell 0.9 percentage points and 0.8 percentage points respectively to 56.9 percent and 51.1 percent.
However, entrepreneurs expect the demand to pick up soon, with expectation indexes for market demand, domestic orders and overseas orders all on the rise, up 1.7 percentage points, 2 percentage points and 3.8 percentage points respectively from the previous quarter, according to the survey.
The survey revealed that rising price of raw materials remains a major challenge for the entrepreneurs as both the index and expectation index measuring the cost stayed at the high levels of 79.3 percent and 75.4 percent respectively.
The index was calculated on the basis of a survey targeted 5,000 entrepreneurs nationwide.
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