China business confidence picks up

BEIJING: Business confidence among entrepreneurs in China has picked up for the first time in more than two years in the second quarter of 2016, according to surveys by the People´s Bank of China published on Friday.

The entrepreneurs´ confidence index rose to 49 percent in the second quarter, 5.3 percentage points higher than in the first quarter, one central bank survey showed.

That is the first rise in confidence since the first quarter of 2014, according to central bank data.

China´s economic growth slowed to 6.7 percent in the first quarter - the weakest since the global financial crisis.

Chinese officials have pledged to keep up support for the economy, although recent data has soothed fears of a sharp slowdown in China´s economy.

A separate central bank survey published on Friday showed that a bankers´ confidence index rose to 43.7 percent in the second quarter, 5.6 percentage points higher than in January-March.

The survey showed 21.2 percent of bankers believed monetary policy would be relatively loose in the third quarter of this year.

The central bank has cut interest rates six times since November 2014 and reduced the amount of cash that banks must set aside as reserves.

Another survey by the central bank showed that 53.4 percent of households rated housing prices as "unacceptably high, up 2.6 percentage points from the first quarter.

The proportion of residents prepared to buy property in the next three months rose to 15.1 percent in the second quarter, 1.5 percentage points higher than the previous quarter, the survey showed.