China's business confidence improves in Q2: central bank survey

BEIJING - Business confidence among Chinese entrepreneurs continued to improve in the second quarter of the year, a central bank survey showed Friday.

The entrepreneur confidence index climbed for the ninth straight quarter, rising to 75.8 in the second quarter from 74.2 in the first quarter, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

Another PBOC survey showed bankers' confidence in the economy dipping slightly after rising for nine quarters, edging down from 81.9 in the first quarter to 81.2 in the second quarter.

Some 76.1 percent of the bankers surveyed believed current monetary policy was moderate, up from 73.2 percent in the first quarter.

In a survey of 20,000 urban households in 50 cities, 44.7 percent of those polled expected housing prices to remain stable in the July-September period, while 36.5 percent of them said housing prices would rise.

Some 27.7 percent of the households surveyed expected consumer prices to rise during the following quarter, while 53.7 percent of them expected the prices to remain stable, according to the PBOC survey.