MADRID, 19 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Harmonized Business Confidence Indicator (ICEA), whose publication corresponds to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), fell 2% in the fourth quarter of this year, breaking the streak of three quarters of increases that it had been chaining since the beginning of 2023 .

The decline in business confidence registered for the October-December period is due to both the worsening of the expectations indicator and the current situation.

Specifically, the balance of expectations (difference between the opinions of optimistic and pessimistic businessmen) stood at 0.3 points in the third quarter of this year, compared to 5.2 points in the previous quarter.

This is because the percentage of business establishments that think that the progress of their business will be favorable between October and December of this year has stood at 19.2%, three points below that reported in the previous quarter.

On the other hand, those who think that their business will develop unfavorably in the fourth quarter have increased from 17% in the previous quarter to 18.9%, while the proportion of businessmen who expect a "normal" evolution of their business has increased. business, from 60.8% to 61.9%.

For its part, the balance sheet (difference between favorable and unfavorable responses compared to the quarter ended) has worsened by more than three points compared to the previous quarter, going from 6.9 points in the third quarter to 3.6 points in the last quarter. of this exercise.