Belgium Business Confidence Unexpectedly Rises In August

(RTTNews) - Belgium's business confidence rose slightly in August, defying expectations for further decline, survey data from the National Bank of Belgium showed Monday.

The business confidence index climbed to -7.3 from -7.5 in July. Economists had forecast the score to ease further to -8.

The improvement in August was largely led by brightened sentiment in both the building industry and the trade sector.

The sentiment index for the construction sector moved up to -12.1 from -13.9, mainly due to an improvement in demand and new orders.

The measure of confidence for the trade sector climbed strongly to -8.9 from -13.2. "Retailers are holding out the prospect of a marked increase in the orders they place with suppliers and they are also expecting to deploy more staff," the survey said.

The confidence index for the manufacturing industry rose to -9.6 from -9.8.

In contrast, the index for the business services sector dropped to 8 from 10.5, due to severely worse outlook for business activity and also a more gloomy view on market demand.